segregate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
segregates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
segregated,
past participle, past
-
segregating
present participle
-
to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate.
to segregate exceptional children; to segregate hardened criminals.
- Antonyms:
- integrate
-
to require, by law or custom, the separation of (an ethnic, racial, religious, or other minority group) from the dominant majority.
verb (used without object)
-
segregates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
segregated,
past participle, past
-
segregating
present participle
-
to separate, withdraw, or go apart; separate from the main body and collect in one place; become segregated.
-
to practice, require, or enforce segregation, especially racial segregation.
-
Genetics. (of allelic genes) to separate during meiosis.
noun
verb
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to set or be set apart from others or from the main group
-
(tr) to impose segregation on (a racial or minority group)
-
genetics metallurgy to undergo or cause to undergo segregation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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segregatornoun
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resegregateverb
-
nonsegregableadjective
-
nonsegregativeadjective
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segregableadjective
-
segregativeadjective
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unsegregableadjective
-
unsegregatingadjective
-
unsegregativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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segregatesimple
-
segregatessimple
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have segregatedperfect
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has segregatedperfect
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am segregatingprogressive
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are segregatingprogressive
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is segregatingprogressive
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have been segregatingperfect progressive
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has been segregatingperfect progressive
Past
-
segregatedsimple
-
had segregatedperfect
-
was segregatingprogressive
-
were segregatingprogressive
-
had been segregatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of segregate
1400–50 in sense “segregated”; 1535–45 as transitive v.; late Middle English segregat < Latin sēgregātus (past participle of sēgregāre to part from the flock), equivalent to sē- se- + greg- (stem of grex flock) + -ātus -ate 1; see gregarious
Explanation
To separate people by race or religion is to segregate them. In general, the word segregate means to separate one type of thing from another. In the United States, the practice of segregating blacks from whites in public schools and public places was common in the South until the 1960s. Because of this, people don't even like to use the word segregate in its neutral sense. But you could rightly say that new bicycle lanes are designed to segregate bikes from auto traffic.
Vocabulary lists containing segregate
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
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"Reading Lolita in Tehran," Vocabulary from the memoir
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Because They Marched
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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:
The model was trained to segregate the “pure news” in each article from that which was old and stale and, therefore, predictable.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 4, 2026
His aim wasn’t to segregate black history from the national narrative but to force its inclusion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
"Thus the organization of neural responses into subspaces can both segregate and integrate information," the authors write.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 17, 2024
Professors collaborated with the directors of the campus art museum and instructors in the social sciences and business departments, to demonstrate that knowledge is impossible to segregate or compartmentalize.
From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2024
The island had one hospital, and it was difficult to segregate us from the general prisoners while we were there.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The factory accepts waste material which it then sorts and segregates.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2023
Frustrating others, sadly, does little to instill joy and only further segregates Americans.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 15, 2022
Admiral Ring renewed that effort last June, telling reporters that the current top-secret prison where the military segregates high-value detainees, called Camp 7, would become inadequate as the prisoners aged.
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2019
The conventional narrative of U.S. history routinely segregates the “Indian wars” as a subspecialization within the dubious category “the West.”
From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2014
Life breaks up this Neuter counterpoise, and progressively unlocks and segregates, and thus reveals and specialises the inherent attributes of Sex Phenomena of Duality characterise not Living Matter only, but Inorganic Matter too.
From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Arabella Kenealy
Saar grew up in a partially segregated city and came of age in a society where Black women were expected to find practical work, not become artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Dementia has historically been a hidden disease in which affected individuals are sequestered at home or segregated in day programs or institutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Refiners have to follow very precise sets of specifications for jet fuel, and also have to make sure the product is completely segregated from other derivatives and adequately stored.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
The Tory leader's spokesman said Timothy's comments were based on footage showing segregated males praying at the event.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
I read about Dr. King going to Chicago to protest segregated neighborhoods and being attacked by a mob of angry white people who threw rocks at him.
From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar
At this World Cup, authorities didn’t bother segregating them, including at the potentially fractious semifinal between ancient enemies England and Argentina.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
It was launched in the 1970s by the federal government as an alternative to public housing projects, which were criticized for segregating poor families in neighborhoods with low-quality schools and other substandard services.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025
Despite losing a lot of ground she had to install "a permanent fence which is segregating those members of the public who do not respect what we do on the farm".
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2023
When asked whether identifying and segregating the necessary proportion of the population may not be achievable for that approach to be effective, Bhattacharya replied by criticizing the experts who claimed that to be the case.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2022
Once again Holmes’s method of segregating tasks and firing workers was proving successful.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
