ostracize
Americanverb (used with object)
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ostracizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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ostracized,
past participle, past
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ostracizing
present participle
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to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc..
His friends ostracized him after his father's arrest.
- Antonyms:
- accept
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to banish (a person) from their native country; expatriate.
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(in ancient Greece) to banish (a citizen) temporarily by popular vote.
verb
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to exclude or banish (a person) from a particular group, society, etc
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(in ancient Greece) to punish by temporary exile
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ostracizesimple
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ostracizessimple
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have ostracizedperfect
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has ostracizedperfect
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am ostracizingprogressive
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are ostracizingprogressive
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is ostracizingprogressive
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have been ostracizingperfect progressive
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has been ostracizingperfect progressive
Past
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ostracizedsimple
-
had ostracizedperfect
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was ostracizingprogressive
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were ostracizingprogressive
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had been ostracizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ostracize
First recorded in 1640–50; from Greek ostrakízein, equivalent to óstrak(on) “potsherd, tile, ballot” (akin to óstreion oyster ( def. ) ) + -izein -ize ( def. )
Explanation
If you banish someone or ignore him, you ostracize him. When the Iranian president claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax, he was ostracized by the international community. Ostraka is an ancient Greek word for pottery shard. Thousands of years ago, in the Greek city of Athens, there was a public process where you would write the name of someone you wanted to kick out of town on a broken ceramic fragment. If enough Athenians wrote the same name, that person was sent away for ten years. This process was called an ostracism.
Vocabulary lists containing ostracize
Grade 10, List 2
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100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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The Catcher in the Rye
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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:
When the Athenians voted to ostracize him, he became a Persian governor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
“The Traitors” is a social game, so when Funches’ early big swing at another contestant misses terribly, the rest of the players instantly ostracize him.
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2026
Rather than ostracize the neighborhood’s teenagers, he wants to find ways to engage them and show them the value of being part of a culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
Conlan expressed to her friends that the existence of a secret group text—created with the specific intention to ostracize her, and nobody else—hurt her feelings.
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2023
We refer to it with catch-all terms, like crazy or chronic pain, terms that both ostracize and minimize.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
Will's signature swagger, which was once-revered in his old town, now ostracizes him from his peers and loved ones.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2022
The film portrays how Japanese society, often working like a claustrophobic village, ostracizes and punishes what it sees as erring individuals.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 24, 2021
Mesa County’s “siloed, non-collaborative behavior ostracizes us from our Western Slope neighbors,” she added.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 6, 2019
A man searches for answers a decade after his close-knit high school clique inexplicably ostracizes him.
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2014
He is at once dishonored; society ostracizes him.
From Black Diamonds by Mór Jókai
And now, all of these years later, you feel ostracized from your remaining family and, more than that, you were left with a few mementoes of those formative years and no inheritance.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
“To find we have been ostracized for practicing as Catholics have done for 2000 years is of great anxiety to us.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Her being ostracized in season 2 is a direct result of her bad decisions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
Individuals all over the country were fired from their jobs, shunned, ostracized and run out of town for insufficient reverence for Kirk on social media.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2026
After a while, she continued, “It was so hard on my dad. He and Liz were ostracized by the tribe, and that hurt so much. They needed family and support, and they didn’t have any.”
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
The Vatican has long argued that in some countries, reporting claims to law enforcement could result in the ostracizing of victims and potentially a death sentence for the accused.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2023
“We wanted to be a light for the children that are here and might feel ostracizing in their own family,” “Sister Annie Philaxis,” a member of the drag group the Hillbilly Harlots, told 5News.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 18, 2023
Instead of ostracizing Black, some of the students tried to change his mind.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2023
The incident, she said, reminded her of the worst ostracizing in Nazi Germany.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
Nothing that Dent's Tour could do in the way of ostracizing would have been able to pierce through to his consciousness.
From The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth von Arnim
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.
