racial

[rey-shuhl]

adjective

1. of or relating to the social construct of race.

   racial diversity;

   racial stereotypes.

2. (no longer in technical use) of, relating to, or characteristic of one race or the races of humankind.

racial

/ ˈreɪʃəl /

adjective

1. denoting or relating to the division of the human species into races on grounds of physical characteristics

2. characteristic of any such group

3. relating to or arising from differences between the races

   racial harmony

4. of or relating to a subspecies

Other Word Forms

• racially adverb
• antiracial adjective
• nonracial adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of racial¹

First recorded in 1860–65; race ² + -ial

Example Sentences

The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, exacerbating racial tensions between black and white people in the country.

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In 1988, the criteria was expanded to include mothers who were in racial or ethnic groups at high risk of contracting the disease, such as Southeast Asian immigrants and Alaskan natives.

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It covers the period from the end of World War II to the presidential campaigns of 1984, a time of fraught racial relations.

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The other strand from the Smithsonian’s past—the bone rooms and racial condescension—inspired an antipathy toward any association with such notions and a resentment toward the presumptions of traditional museums.

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To Mr. Ambar, it fully reveals Lincoln’s “early support for racial justice.”

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