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

“How could this blatant racial profiling, the terrorizing of the communities of Los Angeles, take place without a direct challenge to this injustice? That’s why we came together.”

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As a Stanford undergraduate, he met the NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall, not long after the latter won a victory against racial segregation in Brown v.

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Nor was the tendency to justify slavery on racial grounds any less widespread among elite Muslims than it became among plantation owners in the American South.

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At one point, a white man wearing a sombrero, poncho and fake mustache walked around and through the small group of protesters, yelling racial slurs and taunting them.

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The racial disparities that sparked Wilson’s activism at the dawn of the pandemic have narrowed but still exist.

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