Meaning & use
protected characteristic
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Meanings
nouncountablelegallaw
A personal quality, such as age, race, or religion, that the law says you must not be treated unfairly because of.
Grammar: Countable, so you can say 'a protected characteristic' or 'protected characteristics' in the plural.
Patterns
- a protected characteristic under the law
- discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic
- one of the protected characteristics
The company's policy explains that age is a protected characteristic.
She claimed she had been treated unfairly because of a protected characteristic.
Under the act, disability counts as a protected characteristic.
nounplurallegallaw
The official list of such personal qualities in an equality law or workplace rule.
Grammar: Usually used in the plural with 'the', as a fixed set defined by law.
Patterns
- the protected characteristics
- cover the protected characteristics
- list of protected characteristics
The training session went through all the protected characteristics one by one.
Their staff handbook sets out the protected characteristics in a short table.
Word forms
| plural | protected characteristics |
|---|
Common combinations
- a protected characteristic under the law
- Being pregnant is a protected characteristic under the law here.
- discrimination based on a protected characteristic
- The tribunal found discrimination based on a protected characteristic.
- one of the protected characteristics
- Sex is one of the protected characteristics in this country.
- the list of protected characteristics
- The list of protected characteristics was widened last year.
- treated unfairly because of a protected characteristic
- He said he was treated unfairly because of a protected characteristic.
Synonyms and how they differ
- protected ground
- Used in some legal systems for the same idea, but it is rarer and mainly appears in formal legal writing.
- protected trait
- A looser, less official phrase; it fits general discussion but not the exact wording of a law.
Word family
- protected adjective
- Kept safe from harm or unfair treatment.
- characteristic noun
- A typical feature or quality of someone or something.
- protection noun
- The act of keeping someone or something safe from harm.
- discrimination noun
- Unfair treatment of a person or group, often because of a protected characteristic.
Commonly confused: protected characteristic or personal characteristic? protected characteristic or protected class?
protected characteristic vs personal characteristic
This simply means any feature of a person and carries no legal protection; a protected characteristic is one the law specifically guards.
protected characteristic vs protected class
Mostly American legal usage for a group of people who share such a trait; 'protected characteristic' names the trait itself.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'protected characteristic' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'A protected characteristic in their state' is the natural pattern, and the countable noun needs 'a'. Option 2 uses 'to' instead of 'in', option 3 drops the article, and option 4 wrongly uses 'of' as if the state owned the trait.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “protected characteristic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.