Stereotype
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of (a person or a group of people). countable, uncountable
"Not all Zumbetonians wear plimsolls. That's just a stereotype."
- 2 a conventional or formulaic conception or image wordnet
- 3 A person who is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type. countable, uncountable
- 4 A metal printing plate cast from a matrix moulded from a raised printing surface. countable, uncountable
- 5 An extensibility mechanism of the Unified Modeling Language, allowing a new element to be derived from an existing one with added specializations. countable, uncountable
- 1 To make a stereotype of someone or something, or characterize someone by a stereotype. transitive
"Unable to ascertain what is in the minds of so many individuals, he must try to simplify his problems by eliminating individual differences: he must try to control and stereotype interests and beliefs by education and propaganda."
- 2 treat or classify according to a mental stereotype wordnet
- 3 To prepare for printing in stereotype; to produce stereotype plates of. transitive
"to stereotype the Bible"
- 4 To print from a stereotype. transitive
- 5 To make firm or permanent; to fix. figuratively, transitive
"Powerful causes tending to stereotype and aggravate the poverty of old conditions."
- 1 Of an edition: printed in stereotype.
"At the present Epoch (1800), the art of Printing is become rather retrograde; or we should not hear so much of Stereotype editions. Surely the use and very principle of the invention of Printing, is to have the types moveable!"
- 2 Synonym of stereotyped. figuratively, rare
"It is an ingenious expression which I owe to you, sir, that the manners of the East are as it were stereotype. Ahhough I do not conceive that they are quite so strongly marked, yet, to make my idea understood, I would say that they are like the last impressions taken from a copper-plate engraving, where the whole of the subject to be represented is made out, although parts of it from much use have been obliterated."
Example
More examples"But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire."
Etymology
Borrowed from French stéréotype (adjective), equivalent to stereo- + type. Printing sense is from 1817; the “conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image” sense is recorded from 1922 in Walter Lippmann’s book Public Opinion.
Related phrases
More for "stereotype"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.