discrimination
/dɪˌskɹɪm.əˈneɪʃən/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.31 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
5
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Differential treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage; treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality; prejudice; bigotry.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The quality of being discriminating; acute discernment, especially in matters of good taste.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Have you felt the weight of the considerations which have been presented, in order to show the importance of discrimination on the subject of revealed truth?"
- "An earthquake here rolls harmless through the land, And Thou art good because the chimneys stand— There templed cities sink into the sea, And damp survivors, howling as they flee, Skip to the hills and hold a celebration In honor of Thy wise discrimination."
- "In place of a discrimination box a jumping apparatus was used, and apparently this required performance less foreign to the natural response repertory of the bird."
- "The 'pretraining' for the two-choice discrimination involved a discrimination between angles differing by 19° (6° versus 25°) in which the smaller angle was marked with a 2 cm Plexiglas square that the bats had previously detected in a simple one-choice discrimination."
- "sexual or racial discrimination"
- "reverse discrimination"
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin discrīminātiō, discrīminātiōnem, the action noun to discrīminō, discrīmināre (“distinguish”). Equivalent to discriminate + -ion. In English use from the 17th century.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *krey-
- Suffix: discriminate
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɪˌskɹɪm.əˈneɪʃən/
- British English: /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/