noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression. US, countable, uncountable

   "Near-synonyms: microassault, microinequity, microinsult, microinvalidation, nanoaggression"

Synonyms

All synonyms

microassaultmicroinequitymicroinsultmicroinvalidationnanoaggressionsae

Example

More examples

"I've gritted my teeth through microaggression after microaggression today."

Etymology

From micro- + aggression, coined by American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970.

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