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

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Etymology

Origin of institutional

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

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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

They also offered a lens for examining institutional responses at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and beyond.

From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026

Their goal was for the album to tell a story of radicalization, following a protagonist who shifts from complacency to an awareness of injustice and institutional oppression, and ultimately resolves to act against it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

He said that institutional investors had been expecting Manhattan Associates’ cloud-services revenue growth to slow, and consensus estimates were in line with that view.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

Asset-management firms are targeting individual investors to sell private-credit products as traditional institutional investors max out exposure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

A few had genuine problems with their mouths or their ears, but the rest of us, we were sent there by the grace of either too much institutional frustration or goodwill.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

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