other

verb

othered; othering

transitive verb

: to treat or consider (a person or a group of people) as alien to oneself or one's group (as because of different racial, sexual, or cultural characteristics)

… we trace how in small rural communities these processes of othering the poor are racialized.

—Victoria Lawson et al.

You go in and don't have to go some dark, scary corner for the plus-size section. It can make you feel like you're not being othered and dehumanized.

—Amanda Levitt

othering

ˈə-t͟hə-riŋ 

ˈət͟h-

noun

I am a black writer struggling with and through a language that can powerfully evoke and enforce hidden signs of racial superiority, cultural hegemony, and dismissive "othering" of people …

—Toni Morrison

Did you know?

Is other a verb?

Like many English words, other possesses great flexibility in meaning and function. Over the past few centuries, it has served as an adjective, an adverb, a noun, and a pronoun. In recent decades, other has increased its part-of-speech portfolio to include verb use, having acquired the meaning "to treat or consider (a person or a group of people) as alien to oneself or one's group (as because of different racial, sexual, or cultural characteristics).” Some people find it disconcerting when a word takes on a new part of speech, a process known as functional shift. The phenomenon is quite common, however -- our language contains many thousands of words which have been formed in this fashion.

Examples of other in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The film sensitively and disarmingly refuses to other the subculture at its core — a clever way of making the particular feel universal. —Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 4 Feb. 2026

But can other smaller regions—like Southeast Asia, home to the largest group of unconnected people in the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa—keep up? —Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 24 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1985, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing other

• all/other things being equal
• among other things
• any other
• at each other's throats
• at some time or other
• be/live in each other's pockets
• cancel each other/one another out
• each other
• every other
• for some reason or other
• from one extreme to the other
• gave each other dap
• have other ideas
• how the other half lives
• in one ear and out the other
• in other words
• it's six of one and half a dozen of the other
• it's six of one, half (a) dozen of the other
• laugh on the other side of one's face
• like no other
• look the other way
• made for each other
• meant for each other
• none other than
• no other
• one or the other
• one other
• one right after the other
• on the other hand
• opposite/other extreme
• other-directed
• other half
• other man
• other than
• other woman
• put one foot in front of the other
• significant other
• somehow or other
• some other
• something or other
• the boot is on the other foot
• the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence)
• the other
• the other day/night/morning/afternoon/evening
• the other/opposite/flip side of the coin
• the other way around
• the other way round
• the other woman
• the shoe is on the other foot
• this, that, and the other
• turn the other cheek

Rhymes for other

• brother
• mother
• nother
• smother
• souther
• another
• godmother
• grandmother
• stepbrother
• stepmother

Kids Definition

other

1 of 4 adjective

oth·​er ˈət͟h-ər 

1

: not being the one or ones first mentioned or included

broke my other arm

2

: having one come before that is not included or counted : second

every other day

3

: not the same : different

any other color would be better

4

: additional

some other guests are coming

5

: recently past

the other evening

other

2 of 4 noun

1

: a remaining one

lift one foot and then the other

2

: a different or additional one

the others came later

other

3 of 4 pronoun

: a different or additional one

something or other

other

4 of 4 adverb

: otherwise sense 1

could not get there other than by helicopter