exclusionary
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of exclusionary
Explanation
Being exclusionary means deliberately leaving out certain people or groups, like an exclusionary club that won't admit anyone who's shorter than six feet tall or who has red hair. When something is exclusionary, it's limited to specific people or only those who belong to certain groups. This adjective has a negative connotation, because excluding people, especially for reasons out of their control, is usually unfair. Exclusionary comes from the Latin exclusionem, "a shutting out" and its root, which means "to shut." An exclusionary game of beach volleyball shuts out certain people, while making the game inclusive allows anyone who's interested to join in.
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.
That position is at the core of the legal case brought by Brosseau, which argues that current laws are exclusionary to those with mental illness and therefore unconstitutional.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
“Describe any other exclusionary conduct on the part of Netflix that would reasonably appear capable of entrenching market or monopoly power,” the agency asked in the subpoena, sent to another entertainment company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
As the castle doctrine spread across the English colonies, including North America, it took its essential exclusionary principles with it.
From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2025
“It feels really lifeless and exclusionary, and the love that those centers had for their students — that love hasn’t found its place back to campus yet,” she said in an interview.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2025
While I was encouraged by their militancy, I thought that their philosophy, in its concentration on blackness, was exclusionary, and represented an intermediate view that was not fully mature.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
