dehumanize
verb
de·hu·man·ize
| \ (ˌ)dē-ˈhyü-mə-ˌnīz
, (ˌ)dē-ˈyü-\
, (ˌ)dē-ˈyü-\
dehumanized;
dehumanizing;
dehumanizes
Definition of dehumanize
: to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity: such as
a
: to subject (someone, such as a prisoner) to conditions or treatment that are inhuman or degrading
"… you treat people with respect, you get respect back. You treat them like animals, you strip search them, you dehumanize them, you lock them up, you don't feed them … you are going to get that back … "— Adelina Iftene
b
: to address or portray (someone) in a way that obscures or demeans that person's humanity or individuality
propaganda that dehumanizes the enemy I'm always struck by the way language is used to dehumanize others.— Anna Lind-Guzik Treating Chicagoland violence as merely a tally necessarily dehumanizes its victims, but it also obscures so much of the larger story about that violence.— Gene Demby But that approach ignores the fundamental dynamics of racism, which dehumanizes people along crude lines, ignoring any internal distinctions among those with broadly similar looks, treating them all as uniformly suspicious.— Sangay K. Mishra
c
: to remove or reduce human involvement or interaction in (something, such as a process or place)
Nurses are also fearful that the use of technology will dehumanize patient care.— Laurie A. Huryk Social media dehumanizes personal interactions, taking them out of the dining room, the neighborhood store and workplace and into a nowhere we call cyberspace.— Kay S. Hymowitz "To me, Ms. Cao [Fei] is trying to portray that, even in a dehumanized environment like the automated warehouse, you need that inspiration or that order from up high."— David Barboza
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Other Words from dehumanize
dehumanization
\ (ˌ)dē-ˌhyü-mə-nə-ˈzā-shən
, (ˌ)dē-ˌyü- \
noun
, (ˌ)dē-ˌyü- \
noun
Examples of dehumanize in a Sentence
Inspectors have observed terrible factory conditions that dehumanize workers.
the dehumanizing nature of torture
Recent Examples on the Web
Separated from their families, these people have been so successfully dehumanized by the hateful political discourse promoted by Donald Trump and his allies that they are effectively not treated like humans. — Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, "How the US systematically dehumanizes migrant children," 28 Aug. 2019 Gent aimed for a larger critique of the society that each Sunday embraced pro football’s dehumanizing violence, its infliction of pain for the public’s pleasure. — The Si Staff, SI.com, "100 Figures Who Shaped the NFL’s First Century," 28 Aug. 2019 Tlaib, who has family on the West Bank, has said that Israel’s policies are dehumanizing. — Jane Eisner, Time, "Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Were Barred From Entering Israel. The Damage Will Extend Far Beyond Their Blocked Visit," 16 Aug. 2019 Evaluators were more likely to dehumanize speakers when their opinions were reduced to text, especially when the evaluators disagreed with them. Thinned-out interactions made empathy harder to access. — Jamil Zaki, Scientific American, "The Technology of Kindness," 6 Aug. 2019 At the end of that meeting, executives agreed to draft a policy about dehumanizing speech and open it to the public for comments. — Kate Conger, New York Times, "Twitter Backs Off Broad Limits on ‘Dehumanizing’ Speech," 9 July 2019 Dodgeball in phys-ed classes teaches students to dehumanize and harm their peers, professors from three Canadian universities said in a presentation this week at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Vancouver. — The Washington Post, The Denver Post, "Dodgeball is a tool of “oppression” used to “dehumanize” others, researchers argue," 8 June 2019 But taken to an extreme, this performative positivity can be perversely dehumanizing. — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, "Black Mirror’s Miley Cyrus episode rebels against positivity culture," 5 June 2019 Cook did not suggest alternative artwork to cover the controversial mural, but said the prospective mural should inspire students, and not dehumanize them. — Lauren Hernández, SFChronicle.com, "Reversing course, SF school official offers plan to preserve controversial Washington High murals," 9 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dehumanize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for dehumanize
dehumanize
verb
English Language Learners Definition of dehumanize
: to treat (someone) as though he or she is not a human being
See the full definition for dehumanize in the English Language Learners Dictionary