marginalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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marginalizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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marginalized,
past participle, past
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marginalizing
present participle
-
to place in a position of minor or marginal importance, significance, relevance, or effect.
The government is attempting to marginalize criticism and restore public confidence.
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to isolate or exclude from the dominant culture; perceive or treat as being on the fringes of a society or group.
All of these policies have marginalized our vulnerable sisters and brothers for their religion, skin color, or sexual orientation.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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marginalizesimple
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marginalizessimple
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have marginalizedperfect
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has marginalizedperfect
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am marginalizingprogressive
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are marginalizingprogressive
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is marginalizingprogressive
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have been marginalizingperfect progressive
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has been marginalizingperfect progressive
Past
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marginalizedsimple
-
had marginalizedperfect
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was marginalizingprogressive
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were marginalizingprogressive
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had been marginalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of marginalize
First recorded in 1825–35 for an earlier sense; marginal + -ize
Explanation
When you push people to the edge of society by not allowing them a place within it, you marginalize them. If a public school celebrates only Christmas in December, it can marginalize students who aren't Christian. A society that labels certain people as outside the norm — weird, scary, hateful, or useless — marginalizes those people, edging them out. Native or aboriginal groups often end up in this position, and so do people who are poor, disabled, elderly, or who in other ways are seen as not quite fitting in. The Latin root is margo, "edge, brink, or border." Since the late 1920's marginalize has referred not to a literal edge, but to a powerless position just outside society.
Vocabulary lists containing marginalize
This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for October 31–November 6, 2020
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The Boy on the Wooden Box
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President Obama's Speech at the United Nations
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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:
“He is worried about having people more capable than him in leadership, which explains his effort to marginalize his Army secretary,” he said.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
When the market’s directional trend is hijacked by forces that marginalize financial metrics like corporate earnings growth and profit margins, it’s more significant than merely investor sentiment souring.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
Efforts to marginalize their participation do not reduce inequality of influence.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
The coalition warned, however, that doing so could “further marginalize high-risk populations and divert resources from struggling facilities while simultaneously overburdening higher-level facilities.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
By doing so, it would help marginalize extremists and terrorists, promote U.S. values and interests, and improve America's global image.
From The Iraq Study Group Report by Iraq Study Group (U.S.)
But the four-team model severely marginalizes really good teams that deserve better.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
It was Hoover’s first taste of the “oligopoly” at the heart of the economics profession, which channels power to a handful of institutions and marginalizes thousands of economists working outside them.
From Slate ● May 10, 2023
The group recommends a "gender-affirming" and "nonjudgmental approach that helps children feel safe in a society that too often marginalizes or stigmatizes those seen as different."
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2023
But, Botha says, “Civility is only possible when there is an equal playing field,” which can’t exist, they say, as long as the field marginalizes autistic people.
From Science Magazine ● Feb. 6, 2023
Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
What may be arguably new is treating the audiences for historically marginalized forms of art as central rather than peripheral.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Talarico, believing God is on the side of the oppressed and the marginalized, focuses his message to voters on equity and protecting personal freedom.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Those marginalized communities, like most voters around the country, don’t have the same tastes as the gentrifying parts of Harlem and upper Manhattan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The project was a visual representation of how everyday people — often marginalized individuals — navigate transit in a sprawling suburban area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
By doing so, they created a program called “Celebrating Diversity Through the Arts” geared toward teaching tolerance to kids who have been marginalized by society and don’t feel like they fit in.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
The French revolutionaries feared industrialization would depersonalize society by marginalizing skilled artisans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Critics worry that cities will lean into criminalizing and further marginalizing unhoused people, worsening the crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024
And his supporters say portraying all Russian citizens as aggressors merely helps to perpetuate Mr. Putin’s rule by marginalizing his opponents.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2022
"We're really drawing a line in the sand and saying if we keep marginalizing people under 30 in vote after vote, we're only going to have a certain set of people in power," says Balestrieri.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2022
It was a small-minded and ludicrous insult, sure, but his mocking of my intellect, his marginalizing of my young self, carried with it a larger dismissiveness.
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.
