Word.ws English Dictionary

microinvalidate

microinvalidate verb: to engage in microinvalidation, to make a relatively small statement or action (microaggression) that negates another person's experience, thoughts or feelings.

Verb

microinvalidate (third-person singular simple present microinvalidates, present participle microinvalidating, simple past and past participle microinvalidated)

  1. To engage in microinvalidation, to make a relatively small statement or action (microaggression) that negates another person's experience, thoughts or feelings.
    • For example, changing seats to be further away from a^([sic]) LGBT person would be microinsulting, while creating an environment where someone feels pushed to "stay in the closet" can be considered microinvalidating. Second, the heterosexist and homonegative behaviors may appear to be harmless but...2010, Kevin L[eo] Nadal, David P. Rivera, Melissa J. H. Corpus, “Sexual Orientation and Transgender Microaggressions: Implications for Mental Health and Counseling”, in Derald Wing Sue, editor...
    • Depending on the consciousness and intent of his actions, these may be considered microassaults or microinsults. Similarly hostile sexism may also take microassaultive, microinsulting, or microinvalidating forms. For example, a man calling a woman in power a "bitch" or "aggressive" may be...2010, Michele Antoinette Paludi, Feminism and Women's Rights Worldwide, →ISBN, page 163

Examples of microinvalidate in a sentence

  • ... such a way that it invalidated the need to diversify the doctoral programs and microinvalidated my comment.2014, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Katrice A. Albert, Roland W. Mitchell, Chaunda Allen, Racial Battle Fatigue in Higher Education: Exposing...
  • Due to the tie between color and class, choosing only lighter women microinvalidates both women of a darker complexion and women who may not be of the middle or upper classes.2014, M. Gasman, F. Commodore, Opportunities and Challenges at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Springer, →ISBN, page 288:

Forms of microinvalidate

third-person singular presentmicroinvalidates
present participlemicroinvalidating
past participlemicroinvalidated
pastmicroinvalidated

Origin of microinvalidate

From micro- + invalidate.

Questions about microinvalidate

What does microinvalidate mean?
Microinvalidate means to engage in microinvalidation, to make a relatively small statement or action (microaggression) that negates another person's experience, thoughts or feelings.
How do you use microinvalidate in a sentence?
... such a way that it invalidated the need to diversify the doctoral programs and microinvalidated my comment.
What part of speech is microinvalidate?
Microinvalidate is a verb.
What is the past tense of microinvalidate?
The past tense of microinvalidate is microinvalidated.

Words near microinvalidate in the dictionary

  1. microinteractions
  2. microinterferometric
  3. microinterlocking
  4. microintervention
  5. microinterventions
  6. microinvalidate
  7. microinvalidated
  8. microinvalidates
  9. microinvalidating
  10. microinvalidation
  11. microinvalidations

Source and license

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