ableist
/ˈeɪ.bəl.ɪst/
ableist adjective: exhibiting or relating to ableism.
Adjective
ableist (comparative more ableist, superlative most ableist)
- Exhibiting or relating to ableism.
- The words "lame" and "spaz" are ableist slurs.
- Beyoncé’s commitment to musical and visual storytelling did not “excuse her use of ableist language – language that gets used and ignored all too often”, wrote Diviney.2022 August 1, Laura Snapes, quoting Hannah Diviney, “Beyoncé to change Renaissance lyric containing ableist slur”, in The Guardian
Noun
ableist (plural ableists)
- One who exhibits ableism, or prejudice against the disabled.
- Like racists and sexists, ableists discriminate against the disabled due only to the fact that they have disabilities and believe in the superior nature and abilities of nondisabled people.2008, Susan Musser, Andrea B. DeMott, David M. Haugen, Rights of the Disabled
Forms of ableist
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more ableist |
| superlative | most ableist |
| Noun | |
| plural | ableists |
Origin of ableist
From able + -ist, by analogy with racist, sexist, etc.
Questions about ableist
- What does ableist mean?
- Ableist means exhibiting or relating to ableism.
- What part of speech is ableist?
- Ableist can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce ableist?
- Ableist is pronounced /ˈeɪ.bəl.ɪst/.
Words near ableist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ableist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ableist.wav.
Cite this entry: “ableist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ableist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.