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
-
(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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The Catcher in the Rye
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100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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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:
Lily decides to ostracize herself before eventually being saved — and redeemed — by the rest of the toys, but by then, it’s too late.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
When the Athenians voted to ostracize him, he became a Persian governor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
SAG voters usually embrace studio movies that other groups ostracize — they nominated “Babylon” — so this disrespectation comes as something of a surprise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
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 used to ostracize everyone, even each other.”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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
Your view of her situation is admirable, and, by your skilful tactique, it is she herself that ostracizes the society that would only have accepted her on sufferance.
From The Fortunes Of Glencore by Charles James Lever
In India, emphasizing someone’s status as a widow in a negative way is considered insulting since widows have traditionally been ostracized and seen as carrying bad luck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
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
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
Sparks and season-ticket holders for Angel City Football Club, wondering why there weren’t any bars in Los Angeles where they could comfortably watch women’s sports without feeling ostracized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
My problems may have seemed big to me in high school, but I wasn't dealing with arranged marriages to the wrong man or a love affair that would leave me ostracized from my entire family.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
The request, Del Real-Calleros told me, “brought back memories — terrible memories” of suffering the same ostracizing both in the Lynwood schools and within his Mexican immigrant community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
Instead of ostracizing Black, some of the students tried to change his mind.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2023
Piednoir, the senator, said the players were ostracizing themselves.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2022
“The real harm to transgender youth lies in the bullying and ostracizing that they face for being branded as ‘different.’”
From Washington Times ● Mar. 9, 2022
This could not all be reward for ostracizing Octon.
From The Great Miss Driver by Anthony Hope
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
