denigrate

verb den·i·grate \ ˈde-ni-ˌgrāt \

Definition of denigrate

denigrated; denigrating

transitive verb

1 :to attack the reputation of :defame

denigrate one's opponents

2 :to deny the importance or validity of :belittle

denigrate their achievements

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denigration

play \ˌde-ni-ˈgrā-shən\ noun

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denigrative

play \ˈde-ni-ˌgrā-tiv\ adjective

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denigrator

play \-ˌgrā-tər\ noun

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denigratory

play \ˈde-ni-grə-ˌtȯr-ē\ adjective

See denigrate defined for English-language learners

denigrate was our Word of the Day on 10/22/2007. Hear the podcast!

Examples of denigrate in a Sentence

Her story denigrates him as a person and as a teacher.
No one is trying to denigrate the importance of a good education. We all know that it is crucial for success.
denigrating the talents and achievements of women

Recent Examples of denigrate from the Web

That's not to denigrate other teams that potentially could get in here.

— david haugh, chicagotribune.com, "Bring on the Dodgers? Good one, Joe Maddon," 28 Aug. 2017
There’s a tendency, especially among young men, to objectify and denigrate women behind closed doors.

— sarah spellings, The Cut, "Chelsea Manning Addresses ‘Locker Room Talk’ in the Military," 23 Aug. 2017
Neighborhood to loudly denigrate without ever leaving: Soho.

— esquire editors, Esquire, "How to B.S. Your Way to a Seven-Figure Book Deal," 23 Aug. 2017
It is beloved by the likes of Sean Hannity and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who have used it to denigrate Trump’s opponents.

— sarah jones, New Republic, "Liberals Helped Create Trump’s New Bogeyman, the ‘Alt-Left’," 16 Aug. 2017
In an article that is certainly a sign of our times, the NYT applied some aggressive data analysis to the president’s Twitter feed and found out something that any child could see: Trump is very good at insulting people and denigrating things.

— chris stirewalt, Fox News, "Trump tries his hand at selling insurance," 19 July 2017
It wasn’t meant to denigrate Bjorn Borg or Paris or clay itself.

— jon wertheim, SI.com, "Post-Wimbledon Mailbag: Wrapping up the grass Slam and looking ahead to the U.S. Open," 19 July 2017
Hamzeh later told others about how Mike had begun constantly denigrating Masons and first floated the idea of attacking the Milwaukee center.

— bruce vielmetti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Man charged in mass shooting plot at Milwaukee Masonic center seeks release," 3 July 2017
Many of HanA--holesolo's posts denigrate black people.

— mahita gajanan, Time, "The Reddit User Who Apparently Made Trump's CNN Video Has a History of Racist Posts," 3 July 2017

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

Did You Know?

If you "denigrate" someone, you attempt to blacken their reputation. It makes sense, therefore, that "denigrate" can be traced back to the Latin verb denigrare, meaning "to blacken." When "denigrate" was first used in English in the 16th century, it meant to cast aspersions on someone's character or reputation. Eventually, it developed a second sense of "to make black" ("factory smoke denigrated the sky"), but this sense is somewhat rare in modern usage. Nowadays, of course, "denigrate" can also refer to belittling the worth or importance of someone or something.