Meaning & use
alienation
The state of feeling isolated or estranged from other people, from a group, or from one's own feelings.
See it in a sentence
Years of working night shifts left him with a deep sense of alienation from his family.
Sociologists study how repetitive factory work can produce alienation between workers and their labor.
A note on using this word
In sociology, alienation often refers specifically to feeling disconnected from one's own work or society, not just from other people.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
belonging
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