otherness
Americannoun
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the state or fact of being different or distinct.
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the quality or state of being perceived or treated as different, foreign, strange, etc..
Certain ethnic groups embrace their otherness.
noun
Etymology
Origin of otherness
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.
What Thompson-Hernández’s art so easily dispels, no matter the genre it finds a home in, are all the knotty, misguided and trite representations of otherness in our contemporary world.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2026
But the sense of otherness remained, even after Carlile married and had two kids with British charity director Catherine Shepherd.
From BBC • Oct. 23, 2025
The withholding nature of Chernin’s Leo poses some theatrical risks but goes a long way toward explaining how the character’s otherness could be turned against him in such a malignant way.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 20, 2025
Amidst current events, what's really solidified my identity as a Jew is a sense of otherness and separateness from the rest of the community — a feeling that I’ve experienced for most of my life.
From Salon • Oct. 16, 2023
And her English, her immigrant English, has a touch of otherness that makes it unintentionally prerise.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
