indoctrinate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
indoctrinates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
indoctrinated,
past participle, past
-
indoctrinating
present participle
-
to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., especially to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view.
- Synonyms:
- propagandize, brainwash
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to teach or inculcate.
-
to imbue with learning.
verb
-
to teach (a person or group of people) systematically to accept doctrines, esp uncritically
-
rare to impart learning to; instruct
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
indoctrinatesimple
-
indoctrinatessimple
-
have indoctrinatedperfect
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has indoctrinatedperfect
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am indoctrinatingprogressive
-
are indoctrinatingprogressive
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is indoctrinatingprogressive
-
have been indoctrinatingperfect progressive
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has been indoctrinatingperfect progressive
Past
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indoctrinatedsimple
-
had indoctrinatedperfect
-
was indoctrinatingprogressive
-
were indoctrinatingprogressive
-
had been indoctrinatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of indoctrinate
First recorded in 1620–30; in- 2 + Medieval Latin doctrīnātus, past participle of doctrīnāre “to teach”; see doctrine, -ate 1
Explanation
If you indoctrinate someone, you teach that person a one-sided view of something and ignore or dismiss opinions that don’t agree with your view. Cults, political entities, and even fans of particular sports teams are often said to indoctrinate their followers. If you indoctrinate someone, the goal is to have that person follow a particular set of beliefs (or a doctrine), rather than being able to think independently or know right from wrong. For example, a child may be indoctrinated into a life of violence by growing up in a war-torn region, or a student may be indoctrinated into a life as a Marxist by an influential political science professor.
Vocabulary lists containing indoctrinate
Grade 11, List 2
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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.
See Examples For:
"Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people", says Mr Williams.
From BBC ● May 30, 2025
In the film, Gosling’s Ken — Barbie’s anxiety-ridden, try-hard, beta-status boyfriend — is revitalized by the patriarchy of the real world and returns to indoctrinate everyone in Barbieland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2023
Packer added that questions posed revealed a lack of understanding about the topics at hand, such as whether the course would indoctrinate students into “Black Panther thinking.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2023
Do they think we want to indoctrinate kids?
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2022
Every case of successful treatment without medicines will assist to indoctrinate the public with this view.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 428 Volume 17, New Series, March 13, 1852 by William Chambers
"That's how manipulative it is - it indoctrinates you."
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2025
I'm thinking about the jurisprudence that, even more directly if more subtly, has expanded First Amendment protections of the commercial speech that indoctrinates us, 24/7, to embrace narrow, self-interested strategies of "self-improvement" and protection.
From Salon ● May 29, 2022
There is so much literature and culture that indoctrinates all humans, and the disempowered, to repress their justified rage and righteous anger.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2018
No one indoctrinates when he is under observation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Your fair daughter was but as ever preparing beforehand with me the tasks with which she so kindly indoctrinates her little sisters.
From The Chaplet of Pearls by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Extremely isolated, totalitarian North Korea is a militarised and heavily indoctrinated state.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Again the U.S. hit a brick wall called Europe and a team of players for whom the World Cup assignment is an indoctrinated dream from Day One.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
He relaxed strict dress codes for agents, recruited female agents and pointedly hired people from outside the agency – who were not indoctrinated in the Hoover culture – for administrative posts.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2025
The parents say that their kids are being indoctrinated, even though they’re just being exposed to narratives about the world around them.
From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2025
As a result, Descartes, indoctrinated with the Aristotelian philosophy, denied the existence of the vacuum.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Like avian Fagins, the birds were indoctrinating others to a life of crime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Ultimately, “everyone is capable of indoctrinating themselves at any time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2024
As comments amass over time, eliciting upvotes and increasingly meta discourse, the recipe starts branching off into infinite variations — some small, some large — perhaps indoctrinating itself into some readers’ regular cooking repertoire.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023
Chaplin’s character ultimately meets a terrible fate for leading on the men and indoctrinating their children with ideas that challenge the family order.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2023
As lecturer in Exeter College he found an opportunity of indoctrinating his countrymen in the new Greek learning.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 5 "Greek Law" to "Ground-Squirrel" by Various
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
