MEANING
To treat or portray people as though they lack human dignity, feeling, or individuality.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- dehumanize captives
- dehumanizing language
On the page
The numbers were meant to dehumanize the captives.
Dehumanizing language made the violence easier for its authors to excuse.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- dehumanize
- Past tense
- dehumanized
- Past participle
- dehumanized
- Present participle
- dehumanizing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- dehumanize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are dehumanizing
- Present perfect
- have/has dehumanized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been dehumanizing
- Past
- dehumanized
- Past continuous
- was/were dehumanizing
- Past perfect
- had dehumanized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been dehumanizing
- Future
- will dehumanize
- Future continuous
- will be dehumanizing
- Future perfect
- will have dehumanized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been dehumanizing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Forms: dehumanize; dehumanizes; dehumanized; dehumanized; dehumanizing Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: dehumanizes.
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