Word.ws English Dictionary

ageism

Syllables: age·ism/ˈeɪd͡ʒ.ɪzm̩/

ageism noun: the treating of a person or people, especially older people, differently from others based on assumptions, prejudices or/and stereotypes relating to their age.

Noun

ageism (countable and uncountable, plural ageisms)

  1. The treating of a person or people, especially older people, differently from others based on assumptions, prejudices or/and stereotypes relating to their age.
    • But a half-hour into this third Democratic debate, many Democrats had to be wondering: Can he [Joe Biden] go three hours? It’s our own collective ageism.2019 September 13, Timothy Egan, “It Will Take More Than Cheap Shots to Knock Off Biden”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

ageism meaning in Indonesian and Vietnamese

ageism in Indonesian

the treating of a person or people differently from others based on assumptions or stereotypes relating to their age
ageisme

ageism in Vietnamese

the treating of a person or people differently from others based on assumptions or stereotypes relating to their age
phân biệt tuổi tác

Forms of ageism

pluralageisms
alternative proscribed sometimes uncommonagism

Origin of ageism

From age + -ism. Coined by American academic Robert N. Butler in 1969.

Phrases with ageism

Questions about ageism

What does ageism mean?
Ageism means the treating of a person or people, especially older people, differently from others based on assumptions, prejudices or/and stereotypes relating to their age.
What is ageism in Indonesian?
Ageism in Indonesian is ageisme. See Ageism meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is ageism?
Ageism is a noun.
How do you pronounce ageism?
Ageism is pronounced /ˈeɪd͡ʒ.ɪzm̩/.
What is the plural of ageism?
The plural of ageism is ageisms.

Words near ageism in the dictionary

  1. ageing like vinegar
  2. ageing like wine
  3. ageing out
  4. ageings
  5. ageinst
  6. ageism
  7. ageisms
  8. ageist
  9. ageistic
  10. ageistically
  11. ageistly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ageism (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ageism.wav.

Cite this entry: “ageism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ageism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.