stigmatize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to mark out or describe (as something bad)
-
to mark with a stigma or stigmata
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stigmatizesimple
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stigmatizessimple
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have stigmatizedperfect
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has stigmatizedperfect
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am stigmatizingprogressive
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are stigmatizingprogressive
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is stigmatizingprogressive
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have been stigmatizingperfect progressive
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has been stigmatizingperfect progressive
Past
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stigmatizedsimple
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had stigmatizedperfect
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was stigmatizingprogressive
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were stigmatizingprogressive
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had been stigmatizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stigmatize
1575–85; < Medieval Latin stigmatizāre, equivalent to stigmat- ( see stigmatic) + -izāre -ize
Explanation
If you stigmatize someone, you have given that person a label — and it's usually a label that is limiting in some way. In Ancient Greece, a stigma was a brand burned into a slave or a criminal's skin to symbolize disgrace. In the 1500s, the word stigmatize meant literally "to brand or tattoo." Nowadays, to stigmatize is to shame or brand a person in a more symbolic way.
Vocabulary lists containing stigmatize
The Federalist Papers, No. 1 by Alexander Hamilton
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "Q" "R" and "S"
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"The Moustache" and "Who We Really Are"
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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.
Critics of involuntary civil-commitment programs argue they violate civil liberties and stigmatize mental illness.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
“I can accept myself and the world can still stigmatize me,” McMillan Cottom said.
From Salon • May 10, 2024
Virologists have also come to acknowledge that names can stigmatize people or places.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024
Countries should work on ways to give the shots —if available — in a way that wouldn’t stigmatize them, she said.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 27, 2023
Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things they claim it to be guilty of.
From The Arena Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897 by Various
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.
