alienation

American  

[eyl-yuh-ney-shuhn, ey-lee-uh-] / ˌeɪl yəˈneɪ ʃən, ˌeɪ li ə- /

noun

1. the act of alienating, or of causing someone to become indifferent or hostile.

   The advocacy group fights against prejudice and social alienation of immigrants.

2. the state of being alienated, withdrawn, or isolated from the objective world, as through indifference or disaffection.

   the group's alienation from mainstream society.

3. the act of turning away, transferring, or diverting.

   the alienation of land and resources from African peoples.

4. Law. a transfer of the title to property by one person to another; conveyance.

5. Statistics. the lack of correlation in the variation of two measurable variates over a population.

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alienation British  

/ ˌeɪljəˈneɪʃən, ˌeɪlɪə- /

noun

1. a turning away; estrangement

2. the state of being an outsider or the feeling of being isolated, as from society

3. psychiatry a state in which a person's feelings are inhibited so that eventually both the self and the external world seem unreal

4. law

   1. the transfer of property, as by conveyance or will, into the ownership of another

   2. the right of an owner to dispose of his property

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alienation Cultural  

1. A feeling of separation or isolation. In social science, alienation is associated with the problems caused by rapid social change, such as industrialization and urbanization (see Industrial Revolution), which has broken down traditional relationships among individuals and groups and the goods and services they produce.

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Discover More

Marxism holds that workers in capitalist nations are alienated because they have no claim to ownership of the products they make.

Alienation is most often associated with minorities, the poor, the unemployed, and other groups who have limited power to bring about changes in society.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• realienation
  noun
• alienative
  adjective
• nonalienation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of alienation

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin aliēnātiōn- (stem of aliēnātiō ), equivalent to aliēnāt ( us ) ( see alienate) + -iōn- -ion

Explanation

An easy way to experience alienation from your nice-smelling friends is to go a month without bathing. Alienation is a state of being cut off or separate from a person or group of people. The noun alienation describes the feeling that you're not part of a group. Your political views might cause you to feel a sense of alienation from the rest of your family, or your vegetarianism could result in alienation from your meat-eating friends. The Latin word for alien is alienus, "belonging to another." That idea of not belonging, or not fitting in, gave rise to the Latin verb alienare, "to estrange," which alienation comes from.

Example Sentences

Arnold put an ocean between himself and his family, but his alienation from his past has drained all the color from his life.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2026

He posits that all the various forms of our modern alienation are connected, drawing throughlines that are both preposterous and incisive as he shows his work.

From Salon • May 22, 2026

Never mind the extreme elements of the support, regular fans - the vast, vast majority - feel a profound disconnection, an alienation from what is going on.

From BBC • Jan. 5, 2026

Tom is gripped by a sense of social as well as marital alienation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

It was all part of the Adams pattern, an iconoclastic and contrarian temperament that relished alienation.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• disaffection
• estrangement
• indifference
• separation