Meaning & use
cancel culture
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountableinformal
The habit, mostly on social media, of publicly rejecting a person or company after something offensive they said or did, often by pressing others to stop supporting them.
Grammar: Used without an or the in general statements: cancel culture is debated.
Patterns
- a victim of cancel culture
- the rise of cancel culture
Some people think cancel culture has made celebrities afraid to speak honestly.
Cancel culture can end a career within days when a video goes viral.
The professor wrote an essay about cancel culture and free speech.
Common combinations
- victim of cancel culture
- The comedian says he is a victim of cancel culture.
- fear cancel culture
- Many young people fear cancel culture online.
- debate about cancel culture
- The debate about cancel culture divides the panel.
- fuel cancel culture
- Social media can fuel cancel culture quickly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- public shaming
- Public shaming focuses on humiliating someone openly, whereas cancel culture also suggests a push to remove their income or platform.
- boycott
- A boycott is an organized refusal to buy or take part, while cancel culture is a broader social pattern.
- call-out culture
- Call-out culture stresses criticizing behavior in public, and does not always lead to someone losing a job.
Opposites
Word family
- cancel verb
- to stop something that was planned, or to reject someone socially
- canceled adjective
- no longer supported publicly
- cancellation noun
- the act of ending a plan or booking
- culture noun
- shared habits and attitudes of a group
Practice
Which sentence best shows the meaning of cancel culture?
Choose one answer.
Cancel culture involves public social pressure to reject someone after offensive behavior. The other options describe ordinary cancellations of plans.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cancel culture”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.