caste system
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of caste system
First recorded in 1810–20
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.
White working-class and precarious middle-class voters were alarmed not only at the upending of the racial caste system but also at what they saw as an unraveling of society in general.
From Salon • May 6, 2026
It’s not a caste system where only undocumented people do some things and only documented people or citizens do others.
From Slate • Sep. 15, 2025
Throughout his career, he fought to reform Hindu laws of the time on marriage and women's rights and to abolish the caste system.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2025
Hollywood, after all, has its own hierarchies — its own caste system, if you will.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 3, 2024
This development enhanced their ability to wage legal battles but impeded their ability to acknowledge or respond to the emergence of a new caste system.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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.
