stereotype
- 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.
- 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.
Origin of stereotype
Synonyms
See more synonyms for stereotype on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for stereotypical
Contemporary Examples
The irony is that communities are protesting stereotyping—as cops respond in stereotypical ways.
In its structure the Mississippi Summer Project defied the stereotypical pattern of racial power in America.
I did one semester at Boulder, which was more a stereotypical, American collegiate experience.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill on ‘22 Jump Street,’ Penis Kissing, and Julie Andrews’s BoobsKevin Fallon
June 10, 2014
It looks like a stereotypical convenience store, shelves crowded with garishly packaged junk food.
Charlottesville Is Swimming in Finger Lickin’ Gas Station Fried ChickenJane & Michael Stern
May 26, 2014
As Goggins puts it, “pictures about the archetypal not the stereotypical South.”
Kentucky’s Finest Antihero: Walton Goggins on Justified’s Chameleon VillainAllen Barra
February 11, 2014
Historical Examples
Most of the money did not come from the stereotypical Jewish billionaires.
After the RainSam Vaknin
His descriptions of the appearance of Jewish characters are usually unflattering and stereotypical.
Nina BalatkaAnthony Trollope
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
- to make a stereotype of
- to print from a stereotype
- to impart a fixed usage or convention to
Word Origin and History for stereotypical
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.
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.”
stereotype
A generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.