bigot

noun big·ot \ ˈbi-gət \

|Updated on: 18 Jun 2018

Definition of bigot

: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance

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Examples of bigot in a Sentence

"It's scandalous," he said, in the tones once used by Colonel Blimp, Britain's best-loved bigot, who adorned the pages of the Evening Standard throughout the 1930s. —Nicholas Fraser, Harper's, September 1996
A bigot is a hater, she said. A bigot hates Catholics. A bigot hates Jews. … It's no sin to be poor, she said. It is a sin to be a bigot. Don't ever be one of them. —Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life, 1994
One had always to be mindful, moreover, that being a black scholar did not exempt one from the humiliations and indignities that a society with more than its share of bigots can heap upon a black person, regardless of education … —John Hope Franklin, "John Hope Franklin: A Life of Learning," 1988, in Race and History, 1989
He was labeled a bigot after making some offensive comments.
an incorrigible bigot who hasn't entertained a new thought in years

Recent Examples of bigot from the Web

After being raised by two men, Courtney is terrified bigots will assume her parents somehow caused her sexuality, as if that were possible.

— refinery29.com, "TV Has Made Major Strides With Gay Dads — Except For This Big Problem," 14 June 2018
The people of Massachusetts didn’t send me to Washington to roll over and play dead while Donald Trump and his team of billionaires, bigots, and bankers crush the working people of this country.

— audrey gelman, The Cut, "Elizabeth Warren on #MeToo, Anita Hill, and Being Angry," 5 June 2018
Even Antelopians felt they had always been talked about as these redneck bigots who are conservative townsfolk that just didn't like the Rajneeshees because of their religion.

— bryn elise sandberg, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Wild Wild Country' Filmmakers Reveal the One Person Who Refused to Be Interviewed," 1 June 2018
How eager so many of us are to be served narratives like this, in which insidiousness isn’t so pervasive after all, in which the racists and other bigots are discrete, easily identified and isolated.

— richard lawson, HWD, "In Spike Lee’s Invigorating BlacKkKlansman, the Real Joke Is on Us," 14 May 2018
In defending the First Amendment rights and freedoms of all Americans, this included, for example, the rights of bigots, white supremacists and others to assemble in the town square, call me a n— and tell me that this isn’t my country.

— WSJ, "NFL Players to Rise for the National Anthem," 30 May 2018
Carl Higbie, a former Trump administration official who lost his job after he was outed as a bigot, is ready for the Nobel committee to act now.

— adam k. raymond, Daily Intelligencer, "The Campaign for Donald Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Has Begun," 27 Apr. 2018
Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's color barrier, once called Yawkey a bigot — according toThe Boston Globe.

— scott gleeson, USA TODAY, "Boston's Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park will be renamed due to its racist legacy," 26 Apr. 2018
Robinson once called Yawkey a bigot, according to a former investigator with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination who interviewed him at the time for a probe into the Red Sox’ practices.

— milton j. valencia, BostonGlobe.com, "Yawkey Way will be renamed to its original moniker," 26 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bigot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of bigot

French, hypocrite, bigot

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1660

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

bigot Synonyms

Other Sociology Terms

bourgeois, ethos, eugenics, exurb, incommunicado, intelligentsia, megalopolis, metrosexual, mores, subculture

BIGOT Defined for English Language Learners

bigot

noun

Definition of bigot for English Language Learners

: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)