Ableism

//ˈeɪ.bə.lɪ.zəm// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Discrimination or prejudice against individuals with physical, intellectual, psychiatric, or other disabilities. uncountable

    "[from late 20th c.]"

  2. 2
    discrimination in favor of the able-bodied wordnet
  3. 3
    An instance of ableism. countable

    "Developing guidelines around which ableisms and favoritisms of abilities are ethical , e.g. which form and shape of competitiveness might be ethical and which might not, can be a useful tool for the governance of S&T."

Synonyms

All synonyms
able-bodiedismable-bodyismdisablismhandicapismable bodiedismable bodism

Example

More examples

"A favorite tool in dealing with blatant racism is blatant ableism."

Etymology

From able + -ism, modelled on racism, sexism, etc.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.