Defamiliarisation

//diːfəˌmɪljəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them. countable, uncountable

    "It therefore works via a process of ‘defamiliarisation’ (ostranenie) (Shklovsky instances defamiliarisation as an effect to be found in riddles with their play on words, and in euphemistic references to erotic subjects)."

Synonyms

All synonyms
ostranenieostranenie

Example

More examples

"It therefore works via a process of ‘defamiliarisation’ (ostranenie) (Shklovsky instances defamiliarisation as an effect to be found in riddles with their play on words, and in euphemistic references to erotic subjects)."

Etymology

From de- + familiar + -isation; possibly a calque of Russian остранение (ostranenije) as used by Russian critic Viktor Shklovsky.

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