rejection
Americannoun
-
rejections
plural
-
the act or process of rejecting.
- Synonyms:
- elimination, dismissal, refusal
-
the state of being rejected.
- Synonyms:
- elimination, dismissal, refusal
-
something that is rejected.
Discover More
Rejection is the most serious problem faced in surgery involving organ transplants. Drugs are used to suppress the immune system after organ transplant in order to prevent the rejection of and eventual death of the transplanted tissue.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rejection
First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin rējectiōn-, stem of rējectiō “a throwing back”; equivalent to reject + -ion
Explanation
The noun rejection can refer to the actual act of rejecting something or to the feeling one has after being rejected. In other words, you might have feelings of rejection after experiencing the rejection of others. The Latin noun rēicere, which means "to throw back," is the ancestor of the word rejection. Nobody likes to feel the rejection of being excluded. The word rejection became popular in psychology in 1931, when parental rejection was seen as a motivation of bad behavior in children. The word found a medical meaning by 1943, as the body's refusal to accept a transplant.
Vocabulary lists containing rejection
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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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.
See Examples For:
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s immediate rejection of the idea brought Kushner back into the mix to see if he could resurrect a little of that old Kissinger magic.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
Dong referred to the SEC’s previous rejection of ETFs tied to “binary outcomes” in prediction markets.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
“That memory of clashes with democratic life, with democratic institutions, brings rejection among moderate voters,” said Gabiati.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Research over the last several years has shown that engagement metrics such as like counts can drive feelings of rejection and depression, external in teenagers.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
I begged for an answer, riding my own wave of grief at his cruel rejection.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
After 23 years of struggle and 60 rejections, I’d sold a hardcover memoir to Random House that led to a series of books.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
Replimune and other industry officials said the FDA, in its rejections, had reversed positions it had established in earlier meetings with the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
The government had to announce a review in 2024 and since then 884 former members of Afghan special forces, who served alongside UKSF, have since had their rejections overturned.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Outright rejections are rare, though in 2021 another U.K. digital bank, Monzo, withdrew an application after the regulator said approval was unlikely.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
Their son’s application to several kindergartens met with quick rejections, unaccompanied by explanations.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
