miscegenation

American  

[mi-sej-uh-ney-shuhn, mis-i-juh-] / mɪˌsɛdʒ əˈneɪ ʃən, ˌmɪs ɪ dʒə- /

noun

1. marriage or cohabitation between two people from different racial groups, especially, in the U.S., between a Black person and a white person.

   In 1967 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state laws prohibiting miscegenation were unconstitutional.

2. sexual relations between two people from different racial backgrounds resulting in the conception of a mixed-race child.

---

miscegenation British  

/ ˌmɪsɪdʒɪˈneɪʃən, ˌmɪsɪdʒɪˈnɛtɪk /

noun

1. interbreeding of races, esp where differences of pigmentation are involved

---

Other Word Forms

• antimiscegenation noun
• miscegenetic adjective

Etymology

Origin of miscegenation

Irregular formation from Latin miscē(re) “to mix” + Latin gen(us) “race, stock, species” + English -ation noun suffix; allegedly coined by U.S. journalist David Goodman Croly (1829–89) in a pamphlet published anonymously in 1864; -ation

Example Sentences

After all, through most of American history, miscegenation was illegal in many places and frowned upon in most.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 28, 2022

So-called miscegenation, the romance between Meg and her white boyfriend, was not allowed on screen, a rule that was relaxed only slightly for the real Pinky, made two years later.

From The Guardian • May 21, 2020

Virginia, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down miscegenation laws.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2018

Virginia struck down laws banning miscegenation, Sidney Poitier starred in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” as a black man romantically involved with blond Katherine Houghton.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2016

White immigrants, in contrast, were not so easy to identify and separate, thus amplifying the anxieties of ethnic contamination and miscegenation in the 1920s.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee