degrading
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of degrading
Explanation
Degrading describes something that is disrespectful or dishonorable like a degrading comment that angered everyone who heard it. The word degrading comes from degrade, which means "to treat someone with contempt." So something that is degrading is cruel, meant to put a person or group down. For example, if you ever heard someone say that all women (or men, kids, or people from a certain place or who speak a certain language or belong to a certain racial group) are "all alike," you have heard a degrading comment.
Vocabulary lists containing degrading
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
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They Called Us Enemy
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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 the sentence have described it as "inhumane and degrading".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The researchers found that excess EXO1 destabilizes newly formed DNA through two main mechanisms, expanding single-stranded DNA gaps and degrading reversed replication forks.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026
Rigid operational dictates cause infrastructure investment to plummet, ultimately degrading track quality and severely hurting long-term economic productivity.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
"That was the start of a lonely, degrading, dark time in my life," she said.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
But what none of us realized was how demeaning and degrading this actually was.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
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.
