lookism
/ˈlʊkɪz(ə)m/
lookism noun: prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's physical appearance.
Noun
lookism (uncountable)
- Prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's physical appearance.
- "We face a world," says Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, "where lookism is one of the most pervasive but denied prejudices."2000 August 27, William Safire, quoting Nancy Etcoff, “Lookism: Uglies of the world, unite!”, in The New York Times Magazine (On Language)
- This is what I love about R4 - lookism goes out the window. But in comes voicism. Don't even consider a career in radio if you're from Toxteth or the Gorbals.2002 April 12, Michael Calwell, “Re: Anyone listen to 'Today'?”, in uk.media.radio.bbc-r4 (Usenet)
Synonyms of lookism
Forms of lookism
| alternative form | looksism |
|---|
Origin of lookism
From look + -ism.
Words formed from lookism
Questions about lookism
- What does lookism mean?
- Lookism means prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's physical appearance.
- What part of speech is lookism?
- Lookism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce lookism?
- Lookism is pronounced /ˈlʊkɪz(ə)m/.
Words near lookism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lookism (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:
Cite this entry: “lookism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lookism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.