dehumanizing

adjective

de·​hu·​man·​iz·​ing (ˌ)dē-ˈ(h)yü-mə-ˌnī-ziŋ 

: depriving someone of human qualities, personality, or dignity : demeaning or damaging to a person's humanity or individuality

a dehumanizing caricature/slur

dehumanizing statistics

Before even being allowed to call a lawyer, the arrestee is faced with the dehumanizing treatment of a strip search …

—John W. Whitehead

This kind of language is deliberately dehumanizing: the athlete is referred to not as a person but as a "brand", throughout.

—Felix Salmon

Inmates at the South Carolina prison cited dehumanizing conditions such as a lack of sunlight, poor and insufficient food, and few rehabilitative programs as reasons they lost hope.

—Aaron Cantú

Not only are writers selling their products, they essentially become their products: author as commodity. It's a weirdly dehumanizing experience.

—Rachel Donadio

… the dehumanizing nastiness of having your intimate personal photos hacked …

—Joe Fay

Examples of dehumanizing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Invoking scammers’ derogatory terminology, though, is dehumanizing and further perpetuates the stigma that many scam victims feel about having been deceived. —Lily Hay Newman, WIRED, 17 Dec. 2024

McBride has urged her new Democratic colleagues to push back on dehumanizing language, but not to let Congress or the media's focus be on culture fights. —Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY, 24 Nov. 2024

These asylum seekers came to be known as Vietnamese boat people, a name that has come to be regarded as pejorative — the sort of dehumanizing language often used in indexing immigrants. —Brendan Quinn, The Athletic, 1 July 2024

Police have also linked him to online writings that address deeper cultural complaints about the dehumanizing impacts of corporate profiteering. —Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1817, in the meaning defined above