exploitative

adjective

ex·​ploit·​ative ik-ˈsplȯi-tə-tiv  ˈek-ˌsplȯi- 

: exploiting or tending to exploit

especially : unfairly or cynically using another person or group for profit or advantage

exploitative terms of employment

an exploitative film

exploitatively adverb

Examples of exploitative in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Supporters say that this will boost workers’ rights and guard against exploitative work in Kenya’s data labeling sector, which is booming thanks to growing demand for AI training data. —Billy Perrigo, TIME, 11 Dec. 2024

Almost twenty years after the publication of Wainaina’s essay, the landscape of writing about the continent continues to expand, but his essential points about the exploitative nature of foreign interest in Africa, and the daily contradictions of life there, persist. —Alexis Okeowo, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2024

And so much of the first season relied on the novel horror of watching the barbaric, exploitative Squid Game play out, hoping that protagonist Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) could hold onto his humanity in the face of it all. —Kayti Burt, TIME, 26 Dec. 2024

Gluttonous international Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla have been complicit in the exploitative supply chain in the Congo for decades, but the hands of consumers aren’t any more clean. —Akilah Sailers, Essence, 19 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

exploit entry 2 + -ative

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above