alienation
/ˌeɪli.əˈneɪʃən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.16 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Emotional isolation or dissociation, as from being separated from social connections or estranged from one's family or community; a feeling of being an outsider.
Uncountable
noun
The estrangement of people from aspects of their human nature as a consequence of the division of labour and living in a society of stratified social classes (e.g., under capitalism or feudalism).
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The alienation of that viewing demographic is a poor business decision."
- "That the mode of alienating their lands, the main source of discontent and war, should be so defined and regulated as to obviate imposition and as far as may be practicable controversy concerning the reality and extent of the alienations which are made."
- "Wearing an Audie Murphy black jacket, playing a Chuck Berry guitar, and performing his electrified alienation with passionate indifference, Dylan assassinated the audience."
- "His alienation from his family means he has nowhere to go at Christmas."
- "I refer to the state of our divisions and alienations of spirit on account of religion."
- "As Hegel showed, time is the necessary alienation, the terrain where the subject realizes himself by losing himself, becomes other in order to become truly himself. In total contrast, the current form of alienation is imposed on the producers of an estranged present. In this spatial alienation, the society that radically separates the subject from the activity it steals from him is in reality separating him from his own time."
Etymology
From Middle English alienacioun, from Old French alienacion, from Latin aliēnātiōn(em).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: alienacioun, alienacion, alienatio