stigmatize

American  

[stig-muh-tahyz] / ˈstɪg məˌtaɪz /

especially British, stigmatise

verb (used with object)

• stigmatizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stigmatized,
  past participle,  past
• stigmatizing
  present participle

1. to set some mark of disgrace or infamy upon.

   The crime of the father stigmatized the whole family.

2. to mark with a stigma or brand.

3. to produce stigmata, marks, spots, or the like, on.

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stigmatize British  

/ ˈstɪɡməˌtaɪz /

verb

1. to mark out or describe (as something bad)

2. to mark with a stigma or stigmata

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stigmatization
  noun
• stigmatizer
  noun
• destigmatize
  verb (used with object)
• unstigmatized
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• stigmatizing
  present
• stigmatized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stigmatize
  simple
• stigmatizes
  simple
• have stigmatized
  perfect
• has stigmatized
  perfect
• am stigmatizing
  progressive
• are stigmatizing
  progressive
• is stigmatizing
  progressive
• have been stigmatizing
  perfect progressive
• has been stigmatizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• stigmatized
  simple
• had stigmatized
  perfect
• was stigmatizing
  progressive
• were stigmatizing
  progressive
• had been stigmatizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stigmatize
  simple
• will have stigmatized
  perfect
• will be stigmatizing
  progressive
• will have been stigmatizing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of stigmatize

1575–85; < Medieval Latin stigmatizāre, equivalent to stigmat- ( see stigmatic) + -izāre -ize

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stigmatize stigmatizes stigmatized stigmatizing

Her claim, she said, “is about whether government can use official authority to stigmatize a private citizen without facts, without process, without fairness, accountability, investigation or even an interview — not even a phone call.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

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

For those acts of self-preservation that fanatics and fools would stigmatize as crimes?

From Hidden Hand by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

The label stigmatizes Cambodia and its citizens, while these criminal networks are transnational and largely foreign-led.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

Young people suffer in silence in a society that still stigmatizes mental health and sharing feelings.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2024

“Our culture stigmatizes mental illness, and this is being deliberately leveraged in a disease where there is not very good evidence of a mental health connection,” she says.

From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2023

“A national law that further stigmatizes these children is completely unnecessary and hurts families and students at greater risk,” the statement said.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 17, 2023

The attempt to invest Matter with these attributes Professor Tait stigmatizes as "non-science," or "pseudo-science."

From The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer by John S.J. Gerard

“Conversations about sexuality and gender diversity were either absent, heavily stigmatized, or framed as something foreign and unacceptable,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

Perhaps the most telling moment came when Whoopi Goldberg raised the issue of race, asking what Black Americans had done to deserve being stigmatized by the administration.

From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026

Fur "was stigmatized for so long," Jacobs told AFP, posing before a full-length mirror and assessing a potential crop.

From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026

Some were less comfortable with the possibility of false positives, since there are often autistic people, or users whose first language isn’t English, whose writing styles are stigmatized as A.I.-like.

From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2026

Among his longtime friends and colleagues, he had seen those who supported Oppenheimer get ritually humiliated by the personnel board, while those who doubted Oppie, like himself, were stigmatized by the scientific community.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Even a clear definition of UPFs runs the risk of stigmatizing certain healthy foods.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 23, 2026

“These Americans have biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease risk starting in their brain and detectable in their blood. It doesn’t mean all 47 million Americans have a stigmatizing diagnosis like Alzheimer’s.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

Clinicians “will go towards the less stigmatizing diagnosis, which is bipolar disorder,” he explained.

From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2024

The reason is simple: A successful relationship between a doctor and patient relies on trust, and that includes trusting a doctor to not share information that might be considered embarrassing, unflattering or stigmatizing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024

I was put in the quandary of setting H. 3rd down as a little unintelligent or stigmatizing my art as ineffective, until I suddenly came upon the correct explanation.

From Seeing Things at Night by Heywood Broun

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