dehumanize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to regard, represent, or treat (a person or group) as less than human.
Society still has a tendency to devalue and dehumanize those with disabilities and to suppress their voices.
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to deprive of human qualities or attributes; divest of individuality.
Conformity dehumanized him.
verb
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to deprive of human qualities
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to render mechanical, artificial, or routine
Other Word Forms
- dehumanization noun
Etymology
Origin of dehumanize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me f— dehumanize me and shame me and f— bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.”
From Los Angeles Times
Absent, too, are the reactions of his nonwhite siblings — their emotions or thoughts, then or now — to the dehumanizing message inherent in the decision made by their own brother and parents.
From New York Times
“Colonialism has been historically and contemporaneously built upon usurping land, labor and autonomy from racialized communities through dehumanizing violence and suppression.”
From New York Times
Trump has also launched a series of increasingly personal attacks against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, calling him “a danger to our Country” who “should be removed immediately,” and using increasingly racist and dehumanizing rhetoric.
From Seattle Times
Even if your conversation doesn’t go further than a little small talk, “you’ve humanized a very dehumanizing experience, which is today’s air travel.”
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
