prejudicial
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does prejudicial mean? Prejudicial means based on or causing prejudice—a bias or a preconceived opinion, idea, or belief about something.Describing actions as prejudicial often implies that the person doing them has made up their mind about something and has made generalizations about it before fully knowing about it. Though a prejudice can be positive, the word most often refers to unfair and strongly held negative judgments—especially hostile judgments about certain people.Prejudice can refer to a specific instance of such a belief, as in He clearly has a prejudice against people of color, or such beliefs collectively, as in We need to eliminate prejudice from society. Prejudice against people can be based on many parts of their identity, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender or gender identity, sexuality, and language. Such prejudicial beliefs often create stereotypes about members of such groups.Describing something as prejudicial often implies that it’s detrimental—meaning it causes harm. Most forms of discrimination are prejudicial.Another adjective form of the word prejudice is prejudiced, which is used to describe someone who has a prejudice against others.Example: This is a clear case of prejudicial treatment—email records show that she was not considered for the job solely because she is Black.
Other Word Forms
- nonprejudicial adjective
- nonprejudicially adverb
- prejudicially adverb
- prejudicialness noun
- unprejudicial adjective
- unprejudicially adverb
Etymology
Origin of prejudicial
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Late Latin praejūdiciālis; prejudice, -al 1
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.
Perhaps he still dreaded the prejudicial tag of “grind.”
Human Rights Watch has criticized the prosecution as “prejudicial.”
From Salon
Doing so, he added, "might create some prejudicial publicity about targets of the investigation" that could ultimately lead to intense litigation if any indictments are brought.
From BBC
The pair were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.
From BBC
Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry, were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.
From BBC
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.
