dehumanization
Americannoun
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the act of regarding, representing, or treating a person or group as less than human.
Dehumanization of the enemy is often what sustains the rationale for a war.
Before trafficked humans are fully enslaved, they are drugged, tortured, and abused as part of the process of dehumanization.
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the process of depriving a person or population of human qualities or attributes such as compassion, dignity, individuality, etc..
When science is not touched by a sense of moral values, it works—as it has done fairly consistently over the past century—toward a complete dehumanization of the social order.
Etymology
Origin of dehumanization
Explanation
Treating people like they're too inferior or uncivilized to be considered real people is dehumanization. Dehumanization can be avoided simply by acknowledging everyone's humanity. One example of dehumanization might be an employer treating all their workers like robots rather than individuals — for example, by refusing to provide safe working conditions or to allow regular breaks. Thinking of people from unfamiliar cultures as inferior is another kind of dehumanization, as is depriving people of basic human rights, like life and freedom.
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.
“Inventing Eliza” links his worries about technology to the dehumanization he experienced in Nazi Germany.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The different kinds of dehumanization I wrote about in this book are based on the sorts of things I experience almost every day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
Above all, he teaches them to resist their dehumanization by the evil men who tore them from their homes and loved ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
"This is what starving people look like, rushing for food while risking their lives. This is what the dehumanization of millions of people looks like."
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2025
Dominance, even the threat of it, is a form of dehumanization.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
