Pejoration

//ˌpiːd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act or process of becoming worse; worsening or degeneration. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    Any process by which a word acquires a more negative meaning. countable, uncountable

    "Nagle explains that the contemporary disapproval of the title is due to a multilayered pejoration inherent in the term Hobson-Jobson."

Synonyms

All synonyms
pejorativization

Example

More examples

"Nagle explains that the contemporary disapproval of the title is due to a multilayered pejoration inherent in the term Hobson-Jobson."

Etymology

From Latin peiōrātiō. By surface analysis, pejorate + -ion.

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