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
Food and food habits are sensitive subjects in culturally-diverse India as they are deeply intertwined with religion and the country's hierarchical caste system.
From BBC • Oct. 27, 2024
Shin was nine years old when the North Korean caste system knocked him on the head.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
