otherness

[uhth-er-nis]

noun

1. the state or fact of being different or distinct.

2. the quality or state of being perceived or treated as different, foreign, strange, etc..

   Certain ethnic groups embrace their otherness.

ˈotherness

/ ˈʌðənɪs /

noun

1. the quality of being different or distinct in appearance, character, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of otherness¹

First recorded in 1580–90; other + -ness

Example Sentences

But the sense of otherness remained, even after Carlile married and had two kids with British charity director Catherine Shepherd.

Read more on BBC

Conservatives, in their efforts to highlight Bad Bunny’s “otherness” – despite the United States being the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world – may have unwittingly educated America on the U.S. citizenship of Puerto Ricans.

Read more on Salon

Amina’s sleepwalking—a concept inconceivable to the villagers, who think the town is haunted—gets her in trouble, and is here a manifestation of her “otherness” and innate resistance to the community’s rigidity.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

How are these collaborations a small resistance to that cruel way of seeing otherness?

Read more on Los Angeles Times

As a Kryptonian raised on Earth by human parents, the character has been shown in stories where he struggles with his own sense of otherness and belonging because he straddles two worlds.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• characteristic 
• contrast 
• difference 
• differentiation 
• discrepancy 
• discrimination 
• divergence 
• division 
• judgment 
• nicety 
• perception 
• quality 
• sensitivity 
• separation