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
There a medieval caste system has bred, not surprisingly, rebellion and the suspicion that all is not what it seems above ground.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 30, 2025
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
Only after years of working on criminal justice reform did my own focus finally shift, and then the rigid caste system slowly came into view.
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.
