stereotype
[ster-ee-uh-tahyp, steer-]
- a process, now often replaced by more advanced methods, for making metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mâché or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal.
- a plate made by this process.
- a set form; convention.
- Sociology. a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group: The cowboy and Indian are American stereotypes.
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- to make a stereotype of.
- to characterize or regard as a stereotype: The actor has been stereotyped as a villain.
- to give a fixed form to.
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Origin of stereotype
Synonyms
See more synonyms for stereotype on Thesaurus.com6. categorize, type, identify.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for stereotype
Contemporary Examples
Give this gorgeous book to that friend who fits the stereotype.
But it often feels more like something from a Japanese stereotype than anything explicitly offensive.
Our stereotype of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is cocaine, nightclubs, and flapper girls.
The popularity of hook-up apps has further pushed the stereotype that gay men are sex-obsessed.
Can they break the stereotype of the hijab as a symbol of oppression?
Historical Examples
Now we have both in a form which will endure with the stereotype plates.
First, some ministers settle for a stereotype of the priesthood.
Herein is LoveReuel L. Howe
The other figure of smoke is a stereotype in all tongues for evanescence.
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1A. Maclaren
The temptation is to stereotype the form when the spirit and power have all departed.
Notes on the Book of LeviticusC. H. Mackintosh
It was to stereotype belief, as it is stereotyped among the millions in the East.
VoltaireJohn Morley
stereotype
- a method of producing cast-metal printing plates from a mould made from a forme of type matter in papier-mâché or some other material
- the plate so made
- another word for stereotypy
- an idea, trait, convention, etc, that has grown stale through fixed usage
- sociol a set of inaccurate, simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly
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- to make a stereotype of
- to print from a stereotype
- to impart a fixed usage or convention to
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for stereotype
n.
1798, "method of printing from a plate," from French stéréotype (adj.) "printing by means of a solid plate of type," from Greek stereos "solid" (see sterile) + French type "type." Noun meaning "a stereotype plate" is from 1817. Meaning "image perpetuated without change" is first recorded 1850, from the verb in this sense, which is from 1819. Meaning "preconceived and oversimplified notion of characteristics typical of a person or group" is recorded from 1922. Stereotypical is attested from 1949.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
stereotype
A too-simple and therefore distorted image of a group, such as “Football players are stupid” or “The English are cold and unfriendly people.”
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stereotype
A generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.