institutional

American  

[in-sti-too-shuh-nl, -tyoo-] / ˌɪn stɪˈtu ʃə nl, -ˈtju- /

adjective

1. of or relating to organized establishments, foundations, societies, or the like, or to the buildings they occupy.

   The association offers an institutional membership discount to members of affiliated groups.

2. of the nature of an established organization or institution.

   institutional bureaucracy.

3. relating to or noting a policy, practice, or belief system that has been established as normative or customary throughout an institution or society, particularly as perpetuated in institutions of a public character, as schools, courts, or legislative bodies: institutional sexism in academia;

   institutional racism in the criminal justice system;

   institutional sexism in academia;

   institutional prejudice against members of the gay community.

4. characterized by the blandness, drabness, uniformity, and lack of individualized attention attributed to large institutions that serve many people.

   institutional food.

5. (of advertising) having as the primary object the establishment of goodwill and a favorable reputation rather than the immediate sale of the product.

6. relating to established principles or institutes, especially of jurisprudence.

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institutional British  

/ ˌɪnstɪˈtjuːʃənəl /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of institutions

2. dull, routine, and uniform

   institutional meals

3. relating to principles or institutes, esp of law

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Other Word Forms

• anti-institutional
  adjective
• interinstitutional
  adjective
• noninstitutional
  adjective
• uninstitutional
  adjective
• anti-institutionally
  adverb
• institutionally
  adverb
• interinstitutionally
  adverb
• noninstitutionally
  adverb
• uninstitutionally
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of institutional

First recorded in 1610–20; institution + -al ¹

Explanation

Something institutional is what you'd expect from a big entity like a college or corporation, such as the institutional cinder-block dorm room walls or the institutional policy of giving employees 10 sick days per year. Accent the third syllable in institutional: "in-stih-TOO-shun-ul." The word institutional can be used to describe something related to an organization or a corporation, like institutional reform or institutional policies. Something that's institutional is often thought of as bland or boring, like the institutional food served to hospital patients. Institutional things often share, for better or worse, a certain sameness.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

institutional

Student enrollment and success: “We need to design our colleges around the students we actually serve rather than expecting students to adapt to unnecessary institutional barriers,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Citigroup’s institutional clients will be able to accept payments in stablecoin, which Coinbase’s blockchain will convert to government-issued currency.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

She argues that officers need stronger institutional support when they refuse to do something illegal or improper.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

Yet, in a rare and long-overdue display of institutional solidarity, the rest of the press corps refused to play along.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

A contemporary philosopher has distinguished between three sorts of facts: brute facts, language-dependent facts and institutional facts.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton