sexist

American  

[sek-sist] / ˈsɛk sɪst /

adjective

1. relating to, involving, or fostering sexism, or attitudes and behavior toward someone based on the person's gender.

   a sexist remark;

   sexist advertising.

2. relating to discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex or gender, especially such discrimination directed against women.

   A sexist work culture contributes to restricted job opportunities for women.

3. reflecting or exhibiting ingrained or institutionalized prejudice against women.

4. reflecting or exhibiting hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women; misogynistic.

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noun

• sexists
  plural

1. a person who has sexist attitudes or behaves in a sexist manner.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sexists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of sexist

First recorded in 1965–70; sex + -ist, on the model of racist ( def. )

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Explanation

A sexist is someone who discriminates on the basis of gender. Sexist people and laws are unfair. Like racist and homophobic, this word refers to a type of hatred or discrimination: in this case, on the basis of gender. Usually, sexist people and laws discriminate against women. Back when women couldn't vote, wear pants, or own property, you could say that the world was pretty sexist. Likewise, before all-women Vassar College began admitting men, it was accused of having sexist policies. Treating a man or woman differently just because they're male or female is sexist.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sexist sexists

Clips of his comment circulated widely on social media as if it were an allusion to abuse, and Flavio Bolsonaro accused Lula of being "sexist."

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

As the luminous, sweet and steel-spined Doralee, she doesn’t just hold her own, she shines, shattering the same sexist assumptions that often plagued Dolly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Denford’s mission is to interrupt the spinning vortex of negativity in which the world is caught by redirecting our energy instead of contributing one more fiery rebuttal to sexist idiocy.

From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026

Denver Quarterly evidently bars material that lays bare social evils, since “we do not tolerate submissions that contain hate speech, bigotry, discrimination, or racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist language or violence of any kind.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026

My sister made some remark about how cheerleading is stupid and sexist, and my brother told her to shut up.

From "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

The performer has just tried out for a role as the first major gay superhero in a Hollywood feature, an avenger “who fights racists, sexists and homophobes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2020

In a new, meticulously researched biography, “A Rather Haunted Life,” Ruth Franklin sets out to rescue Jackson from the sexists and the genre snobs who have consigned her to a dungeon of kooky, spooky middlebrow-ness.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 10, 2016

"Publications around the world are closing comment sections because they don't want to spend the money to edit out the haters, racists, sexists and the uniformed and frightened," she says.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2015

Her powers of deflection are the perfect approach in a neofeminist moment in which women are calling out sexists, sometimes against vicious pushback.

From New York Times ● Jul. 16, 2015

And I don’t mean to say the world is filled with racists or sexists or homophobes.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

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Related Words

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• discriminatory
• dogmatic
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• intransigent
• one-sided
• opinionated
• racist
• xenophobic

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