segregation

[ seg-ri-gey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or practice of segregating; a setting apart or separation of people or things from others or from the main body or group:

   gender segregation in some fundamentalist religions.

2. the institutional separation of an ethnic, racial, religious, or other minority group from the dominant majority.
3. the state or condition of being segregated, set apart, separated, or restricted to one group:

   Segregation on buses meant that the seats at the front were reserved for white passengers.

   the segregation of private clubs.

4. something segregated, or set apart.
5. Genetics. the separation of allelic genes into different gametes during meiosis. Compare law of segregation.

segregation

/ ˌsɛɡrɪˈɡeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of segregating or state of being segregated
2. sociol the practice or policy of creating separate facilities within the same society for the use of a minority group
3. See Mendel's laws
   genetics the separation at meiosis of the two members of any pair of alleles into separate gametes See also Mendel's laws
4. metallurgy the process in which a component of an alloy or solid solution separates in small regions within the solid or on the solid's surface

segregation

1. The policy and practice of imposing the separation of races. In the United States, the policy of segregation denied African-Americans their civil rights and provided inferior facilities and services for them, most noticeably in public schools ( see ), housing, and industry. ( See integration , National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and separate but equal .)

Derived Forms

• ˌsegreˈgational, adjective

Other Words From

• segre·gation·al adjective
• anti·segre·gation noun adjective
• nonseg·re·gation noun
• reseg·re·gation noun
• unseg·re·gation·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of segregation¹

First recorded in 1545–55; from Late Latin sēgregātiōn-, stem of sēgregātiō, from sēgregāt(us) “separated” (past participle of sēgregāre “to part from the flock”; segregate ) + -iō -ion

Example Sentences

After the Supreme Court outlawed explicit race-based zoning, cities across the country, including San Diego, began implementing the zoning we know today, often resulting in racial segregation, even if it was no longer explicit.

From Voice of San Diego

Regardless of intent, the result of zoning in the century since its widespread adoption has been racial segregation, according to a 2000 study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association.

From Voice of San Diego

Flores argues that San Diego’s current system, which provides few options on how one can manage chunks of land, holds our neighborhoods in states of division that ensure segregation.

From Voice of San Diego

The segregation of our neighborhoods and friend groups will not help the situation.

From Voice of San Diego

There were political considerations in the Roosevelt administration when it implemented policies of segregation.

From Freakonomics

The Supreme Court eventually stepped in and ended legal segregation in the landmark 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education.

From The Daily Beast

Before Fidel, when segregation was in full swing, the Cuban apartheid meant many clubs and parks still refused black Cubans entry.

From The Daily Beast

Dana Rubenstein of The New York Observer wrote that “essential to the experience was segregation.”

From The Daily Beast

People often forget that the National Panhellenic council used to enforce racial segregation by means of strict codes and laws.

From The Daily Beast

True, it is grounded in the realities of a fight against a sort of blatant segregation that no longer exists.

From The Daily Beast

Racial segregation in the public schools of Virginia was provided for in the Constitution of 1902.

From Project Gutenberg

Racial segregation in the public schools of Virginia was constitutionally established in the Underwood Constitution of 1902.

From Project Gutenberg

To discover exactly what the Central Authority intended this segregation to be is surprisingly difficult.

From Project Gutenberg

Nevertheless the Central Authority had, from the first, a policy of workhouse organisation inconsistent with any such segregation.

From Project Gutenberg

Here we find the biological explanation of the ineradicable impulse mankind has always displayed toward segregation into classes.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• apartheid
• discrimination
• isolation
• partition