discrimination

/dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/US/dɪˌskɹɪm.əˈneɪʃən/

discrimination noun: discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.

Noun

discrimination (countable and uncountable, plural discriminations)

Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.
- 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?1846, Henry Hollis, Christian Discrimination; Or, A Discourse on the Things in Religion which Differ, page 86
- 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.1892, Ambrose Bierce, Black Beetles in Amber
Synonyms:

differentiation
(sometimes) 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.
- sexual or racial discrimination
- reverse discrimination
(uncountable) The quality of being discriminating; acute discernment, especially in matters of good taste.
- Near-synonym: tastefulness
- You are a man of discrimination,” said Qunk, “I admire that girl a little myself, and, entre nous, I think that I'm a bit of a favourite in that quarter.”1863, Alfred Gladstone, The Man of the Hour: A Tale of Real Life - Volume 2, page 128
Synonyms:

tastefulness
(countable, obsolete) That which discriminates; a distinguishing mark, a characteristic.
- He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and...1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Volume 1, page 239
- But even if this difference should be still greater, it could never be admitted as forming a specific distinction. For the horns not only differ in individuals of the same species, but in the same individuals at different ages. If we were to attempt to arrange animals solely by their horns, the...1789, William Coxe, “Letter 41”, in Travels in Switzerland: In a Series of Letters to William Melmoth, Esq. from William Coxe, […] In Three Volumes […] , page 52

discrimination meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

discrimination in Hindi

distinct treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage: भेदभाव bhedbhāv, विभेदन vibhedan

discrimination in Tamil

பாகுபாடு, பேதம், பகுத்தறிதல்

discrimination in Marathi

discrimination: भेदभाव bhedbhāv

discrimination in Urdu

discrimination; inequality: بھید بھاو bhed bhāo

More languagesFewer languages

discrimination in Bengali: বৈষম্য bōiśommo
discrimination in Telugu: వివక్ష vivakṣa
discrimination in Malayalam: വിവേചനം vivēcanaṁ
discrimination in Kannada: ಭೇದ bhēda
discrimination in Gujarati: ભેદભાવ
discrimination in Odia: ଭେଦଭାବ
discrimination in Sanskrit: विवेक viveka
discrimination in Nepali: भेदभाव
discrimination in Pashto: تبعيض tab'íz
discrimination in Tagalog: diskriminasyon
discrimination in Arabic: تَفْرِيق tafrīq, تَمْيِيز tamyīz
discrimination in Malay: diskriminasi
discrimination in Indonesian: diskriminasi
discrimination in Persian: تبعیض tab'iz
discrimination in Thai: การเลือกปฏิบัติ gaan-lʉ̂ʉak-bpà-dtì-bàt, การกีดกัน
discrimination in Vietnamese: phân biệt đối xử, kì thị
discrimination in Myanmar: ပိုင်းခြားခြင်း puing:hkra:hkrang:, ခွဲခြားဆက်ဆံခြင်း hkwai:hkra:hcakhcamhkrang:

Examples of discrimination in a sentence

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.1950, Lyle Vincent Jones, Analysis of Visual Discrimination Learning by Pigeons, page 14:
However, is it not true that within the preferred or official territory there are certain discriminations?1939, United States. U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on interstate commerce, Freight-rate Discriminations, page 49:
Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned.1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 13:
Due to severe and pervasive discrimination, people dared not be open about their homosexuality, and because no one would be open, social prejudice and discrimination became even stronger.2001, Xiaopei He, “Chinese Queer (Tongzhi) Women Organizing in the 1990s”, in Ping-Chun Hsiung, Maria Jaschok, Cecilia Milwertz, Red Chan...

All 40 example sentences with discrimination

Synonyms of discrimination

Forms of discrimination

plural	discriminations

Plural of discrimination: discriminations

Origin of discrimination

Learned borrowing from Latin discrīminātiō, discrīminātiōnem, the action noun to discrīminō, discrīmināre (“distinguish”). Equivalent to discriminate + -ion. In English use from the 17th century.

Words formed from discrimination

Phrases with discrimination

perfect price discrimination

Words that rhyme with discrimination

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about discrimination

What does discrimination mean?: Discrimination means discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.
What is discrimination in Hindi?: Discrimination in Hindi is भेदभाव (bhedbhāv), विभेदन (vibhedan). See Discrimination meaning in Hindi.
How do you use discrimination in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is discrimination?: Discrimination is a noun.
How do you pronounce discrimination?: Discrimination is pronounced /dɪskɹɪmɪˈneɪʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of discrimination?: The plural of discrimination is discriminations.

Words near discrimination in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: discrimination (page history and authors); discrimination (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); भेदभाव (Marathi) (page history and authors); بھید بھاو (Urdu) (page history and authors); వివక్ష (Telugu) (page history and authors); ಭೇದ (Kannada) (page history and authors); discrimination (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); discrimination (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); विवेक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); discrimination (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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