Word.ws English Dictionary

microaggression

UK/ˌmaɪ.krəʊ.əˈɡrɛ.ʃən//ˌmaɪ.kroʊ.əˈɡrɛ.ʃən/

microaggression noun: any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression.

Noun

microaggression (countable and uncountable, plural microaggressions)

  1. (US) Any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression.
    • Near-synonyms: microassault, microinequity, microinsult, microinvalidation, nanoaggression
    • At McGill, someone has established a McGill Microaggressions website inviting students and staff to report instances of “sexism, heteropatriarchy, transphobia, classism, racism [and] ableism.”2014 February 18, Graeme Hamilton, “McGill student forced to apologize for racial ‘microaggression’ after emailing joke Obama clip”, in National Post, retrieved 19 Feb 2014

Examples of microaggression in a sentence

  • Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.2015 September, Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 04 Apr...
  • Ask whether microaggressions merit the same response as physical assault and the Elect do not receive this as a challenging query.2021, John H. McWhorter, chapter 6, in Woke Racism, New York: Forum, →ISBN:

Synonyms of microaggression

All synonyms of microaggression

Forms of microaggression

pluralmicroaggressions

Origin of microaggression

From micro- + aggression, coined by American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970.

Questions about microaggression

What does microaggression mean?
Microaggression means any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression.
How do you use microaggression in a sentence?
Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.
What part of speech is microaggression?
Microaggression is a noun.
How do you pronounce microaggression?
Microaggression is pronounced /ˌmaɪ.krəʊ.əˈɡrɛ.ʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of microaggression?
The plural of microaggression is microaggressions.

Words near microaggression in the dictionary

  1. microaggressed
  2. microaggressee
  3. microaggressees
  4. microaggresses
  5. microaggressing
  6. microaggression
  7. microaggressions
  8. microaggressive
  9. microaggressively
  10. microaggressor
  11. microaggressors

Source and license

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