Meaning & use
discrimination
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
Unfair treatment of people because of a group they belong to, such as their race, sex, age, or religion.
Grammar: Uncountable and often followed by against: discrimination against women.
Patterns
- discrimination against someone
- discrimination on the grounds of something
The company was sued for age discrimination.
Laws now protect workers from discrimination on grounds of religion.
She faced discrimination when she applied for a flat.
noununcountableformal
The ability to notice small differences between similar things and judge them well.
Grammar: Uncountable and used neutrally: discrimination between two wines.
Patterns
- discrimination between things
A good taster shows fine discrimination between similar wines.
The test measures a child's discrimination between sounds.
Her discrimination in choosing fabrics made her a successful buyer.
Common combinations
- racial discrimination
- The law prohibits racial discrimination in hiring.
- sex discrimination
- She brought a case of sex discrimination against her employer.
- face discrimination
- Many migrants face discrimination at work.
- discrimination against
- Discrimination against older workers is illegal.
- positive discrimination
- Positive discrimination is controversial in some countries.
- outlaw discrimination
- The act outlaws discrimination in housing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- prejudice
- Prejudice is an unfair opinion or feeling, while discrimination is the unfair treatment that results from it.
- bias
- Bias is a leaning toward one side that may be unconscious, whereas discrimination is an actual unfair action.
- bigotry
- Bigotry is intolerant hatred of other groups, while discrimination is about how people are treated.
- intolerance
- Intolerance means an unwillingness to accept differences, but discrimination involves treating people unequally.
Opposites
Word family
- discriminate verb
- to treat people unfairly, or to notice differences
- discriminatory adjective
- treating some groups unfairly
- discriminating adjective
- having good taste or judgment
- nondiscrimination noun
- the practice of treating people equally
Commonly confused: discrimination or discernment?
discrimination vs discernment
Discernment is good judgment about quality, and it is close to the neutral sense of discrimination, but it has no unfair meaning.
Practice
The new law aims to stop ____ against disabled job applicants.
Choose one answer.
Discrimination against means unfair treatment of a group. The other nouns do not combine with against in this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “discrimination”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.