MEANING
1. Unfair treatment of people because of traits such as race, gender, age, or group membership.
2. The ability or act of detecting relevant differences between things, signals, or cases.
Use it for
analyzing unfair treatment linked to group membership; distinguishing unequal outcomes from the mechanism producing them; evaluating evidence of discriminatory practicesSeparates unfair social treatment from the ability to distinguish cases or signals. Academic functions: Analysis / Interpretation.
Words that belong together
- racial discrimination
- employment discrimination
- discrimination against a group
On the page
The analysis distinguishes unequal outcomes from evidence of discrimination in the selection process.
The policy prohibits discrimination against applicants on the specified grounds.
The task measures discrimination between similar sounds rather than attitudes toward social groups.
The model’s discrimination concerns its ability to distinguish outcome categories.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- discrimination
Usage notes
Normally uncountable in both senses. Discriminations is specialist or refers to distinct acts; use instances of discrimination in general prose. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.