marginalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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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 heart and mission of the CSU is to create an inclusive and welcoming place for everyone we serve, not to marginalize one community over another.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 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
National and state laws and a trend toward teaching and testing “core subjects” reshape social perceptions and create a permanent culture that continually marginalizes the arts in the curriculum.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
You’ve spoken up against comedians taking jabs at marginalized people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
“SPLC remains committed to exposing extremism, equipping the public with knowledge and defending the rights and safety of marginalized communities,” a spokesman for the organization said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Fox also had his own spreadsheet, built around a Control-F search for terms like tribal, immigrants, diversity, inclusion, Indigenous, Native, equity, equality, marginalized, BIPOC, solidarity, citizenship, melting pot, social justice, and gay.
From Slate ● May 14, 2026
“We need more voices — feminist perspectives, stories from marginalized communities, an honest reckoning with colorism and the hierarchies embedded in South Asian culture,” Singh said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
As time passed he became increasingly marginalized and even a little pitied.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
After coming to power in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini promised to “preserve” the bazaar and blamed the deposed shah of Iran for marginalizing the traditional market, parts of which are some 2,000 years old.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
Critics worry that cities will lean into criminalizing and further marginalizing unhoused people, worsening the crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024
I went because the idea of further marginalizing our unhoused neighbors is immoral and detrimental to our communities.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
The switch has reordered the auto industry, making Tesla the best-selling brand and marginalizing established carmakers like Renault and Fiat.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2023
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.
