Dehumanize

verb

verb ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To take away humanity; to remove or deny human qualities, characteristics, or attributes; to impersonalize. transitive

    "In its consistently logical form Quietism makes communion between man and God an impossibility by annulling the distinction between them, ultimately reducing God to a vague and empty abstraction, and dehumanizing man."

  2. 2
    make mechanical or routine wordnet
  3. 3
    deprive of human qualities wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dehumanisedisman

Example

More examples

"I do not believe progress is possible if our desire to preserve our identities gives way to an impulse to dehumanize or dominate another group. If our religion leads us to persecute those of another faith, if we jail or beat people who are gay, if our traditions lead us to prevent girls from going to school, if we discriminate on the basis of race or tribe or ethnicity, then the fragile bonds of civilization will fray."

Etymology

From de- + humanize.

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