Word.ws English Dictionary

de-ethnization

de-ethnization noun: the act or process of ceasing to be, or of causing (a group) to cease to be, an ethnicity or a distinct people.

Noun

de-ethnization (uncountable)

  1. The act or process of ceasing to be, or of causing (a group) to cease to be, an ethnicity or a distinct people.
    • From its earlier position as the vernacular of an entire religio-ethnic community it is now the vernacular only of atypical sub-groups who have not participated in the de-ethnization and acculturation of the general Jewish community.1991, Joshua A. Fishman, Yiddish: Turning to Life, →ISBN, page 143
    • Among the concrete reasons for the rapid de-ethnization of immigrants, Fishman cites the great appeal of the American mass culture, […]1999, David R. Andrews, Sociocultural Perspectives on Language Change in Diaspora, →ISBN
  2. The act or process of severing or losing ethnic ties.
    • The separation of religion from life as a result of secularization, ritualization, and organizational primacy is what is most fundamentally involved in this retreat. Indeed, the forces leading to the de-ethnization of formerly ethnic religions […]1972, Joshua A. Fishman, Language in Sociocultural Change, →ISBN, page 69
    • Robins and Aksoy (2005) suggest that actually transnational media, and satellite television in particular, work in association with the process of de-ethnization and de-mythologization of the 'homeland'.2012, Media in Motion: Cultural Complexity and Migration, →ISBN, page 222

Forms of de-ethnization

alternative formde-ethnisation

Origin of de-ethnization

From de- + ethnization.

Questions about de-ethnization

What does de-ethnization mean?
De-ethnization means the act or process of ceasing to be, or of causing (a group) to cease to be, an ethnicity or a distinct people.
What part of speech is de-ethnization?
De-ethnization is a noun.

Words near de-ethnization in the dictionary

  1. de-esser
  2. de-essers
  3. de-esses
  4. de-essing
  5. de-ethnicization
  6. de-ethnization
  7. de-excitation
  8. de-excitations
  9. de-extinct
  10. de-extincted
  11. de-extincting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: de-ethnization (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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