dehumanize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to regard, represent, or treat (a person or group) as less than human.
Society still has a tendency to devalue and dehumanize those with disabilities and to suppress their voices.
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to deprive of human qualities or attributes; divest of individuality.
Conformity dehumanized him.
verb
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to deprive of human qualities
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to render mechanical, artificial, or routine
Other Word Forms
- dehumanization noun
Etymology
Origin of dehumanize
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.
The projects seek to home in on shared values and avoid works that dehumanize other people, she said.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
“We need to support artists, not dehumanize them.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 6, 2025
Social media has a way of exacerbating preexisting social tensions and divisions, making it easier to dehumanize the other side and engage in a kind of verbal warfare.
From Slate • Sep. 12, 2025
How far are we willing to go to utterly dehumanize ourselves?
From Salon • Dec. 24, 2024
Treating differences as a threat enables one society to dehumanize the other.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
