decenter

verb

de·​cen·​ter (ˌ)dē-ˈsen-tər 

-ˈse-nər

decentered; decentering; decenters

transitive verb

: to cause to lose or shift from an established center or focus

especially : to disconnect from practical or theoretical assumptions of origin, priority, or essence

decenter Western conceptions of history

—Ernest Larsen

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

To design better technology, then, is to decenter it. —Rida Qadri, Wired, 20 Feb. 2022

Clearly the effort to decenter white men hasn’t gone great. —Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2021

Season 2 will decenter Darby and focus instead on William Jackson Harper's character Marcus Watkins, according to Deadline. —Iris Goldsztajn, Marie Claire, 25 Oct. 2021

To lean back and push forward is to decenter yourself and to center the marginalized. —Ashlee Fowlkes, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2021

The point is to decenter and recontextualize yourself. —New York Times, 1 June 2021

After eight seasons and multiple spinoffs, the series has found a way to not only decenter the idea of American exceptionalism but interrogate it. —Ashley Ray-harris, Vulture, 5 Apr. 2021

But more quietly and more innovatively, the show began to decenter its composition, to drift away from BoJack and imagine in greater detail the lives of those around him: Diane, Todd, and Princess Carolyn. —Adam Thirlwell, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2020

Montage, a staple of cartooning, is decentering by design. —Sarah Boxer, The New York Review of Books, 7 Mar. 2019

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Word History

First Known Use

1870, in the meaning defined above