as in to humiliate
to make (someone) feel or behave more like an animal than a human being
being deprived of clothes dehumanized the prisoners
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Recent Examples of dehumanize
Human smuggling is dehumanizing.
—
Pilar Arias, Fox News, 19 Mar. 2025
Writing in the early twentieth century, the sociologist Max Weber saw bureaucracy as dehumanizing, a coldly rational deprivation of human freedom.
—Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Frankenstein and Pinocchio explore the fraught dynamic between creator and creation, beings designed to mirror humanity while dehumanized for remaining fundamentally other.
—Silvia Park, TIME, 10 Mar. 2025
The temptation to dehumanize our enemies and label them as animals or insects aids to justify further violence.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Pilar Arias, Fox News, 19 Mar. 2025
Writing in the early twentieth century, the sociologist Max Weber saw bureaucracy as dehumanizing, a coldly rational deprivation of human freedom.
—Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Frankenstein and Pinocchio explore the fraught dynamic between creator and creation, beings designed to mirror humanity while dehumanized for remaining fundamentally other.
—Silvia Park, TIME, 10 Mar. 2025
The temptation to dehumanize our enemies and label them as animals or insects aids to justify further violence.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dehumanize
Verb
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There was a period when Broadway creators thought the only way to get a performance was to humiliate a person.—
Mark Seliger,
Vulture,
7 Apr. 2025
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An investigation of at least eight fraternities found that members humiliated students through means like beating them with paddles or forcing potential recruits to eat live fish and drink urine, according to court filings.—
Dan Belson,
Baltimore Sun,
3 Apr. 2025
Verb
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There were images of riots, burning cities and Black people brutalizing white people.—
James Bandler,
ProPublica,
25 Mar. 2025
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That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered.—
TIME Staff,
TIME,
5 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Until Henry momentarily excuses himself from the table, that is, and the person or persons behind these winky-wink messages tell her to poison Henry ASAP or the menacing guy currently hiding in her apartment will kill her boy.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
10 Apr. 2025
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Calls to poison control centers for pediatric melatonin ingestion increased 530 percent between 2012 and 2021, according to one analysis published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
8 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dehumanize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dehumanize. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
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