segregation.

1. The separation of people or groups into distinct spaces, institutions or arrangements, especially through exclusion or unequal rules.

2. The separation of components, materials or categories from one another.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• residential segregation
• institutional segregation

On the page

Residential segregation reflected barriers that were not visible in the city’s overall averages.

Institutional segregation persisted after the formal rule was removed.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: social explanation, distributional analysis, population description, concept distinction. Disciplines: social science, economics, public policy. Commonness: moderately common.