plural pariahs
1
: one that is despised or rejected : outcast
… the mordant wit and unsettling insight that once made [Mark] Twain practically a pariah in Middle America.—
Roy Reed
Roy ReedA nation, it seemed, had become a global pariah overnight.—Adam Westbrook and Kirk Semple
Adam Westbrook and Kirk SempleNote: Although sense 1 is in common use and is not usually regarded as offensive by Western English speakers, it is highly inflammatory to many people of Indian descent due to its close association with the offensive caste-related meaning of sense 2.
2
dated, offensive
: a member of a low caste of southern India
Examples of pariah in a Sentence
For decades, African states longed for the day when South Africa would be liberated from its status as the apartheid pariah and become the economic engine that would pull Africa out of its mire of poverty and underdevelopment, much as Japan did for the Pacific Rim.
—Allister Sparks, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2001
Once they began to migrate to the United States, especially after this country conferred citizenship on them in 1917, they discovered what it meant to be a pariah in the country that had adopted them.
—John Hope Franklin, "The Land of Room Enough," 1981,
in Race and History, 1989
Even as her star was rising in the outside world, she was becoming more and more a pariah in her own village, where her isolation and sense of rejection made her, for a time, a prisoner in her house, a victim of agoraphobia.
—Judy Oppenheimer, New York Times Book Review, 3 July 1988
He's a talented player but his angry outbursts have made him a pariah in the sport of baseball.
I felt like a pariah when I wore the wrong outfit to the dinner party.
Allister Sparks, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2001
Once they began to migrate to the United States, especially after this country conferred citizenship on them in 1917, they discovered what it meant to be a pariah in the country that had adopted them.
—John Hope Franklin, "The Land of Room Enough," 1981,
in Race and History, 1989
Even as her star was rising in the outside world, she was becoming more and more a pariah in her own village, where her isolation and sense of rejection made her, for a time, a prisoner in her house, a victim of agoraphobia.
—Judy Oppenheimer, New York Times Book Review, 3 July 1988
He's a talented player but his angry outbursts have made him a pariah in the sport of baseball.
I felt like a pariah when I wore the wrong outfit to the dinner party.
Recent Examples on the Web
Sorceresses, with their bewitching glamours and their constant meddling in affairs of state, are pariahs of a different kind.
—Scott Meslow, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was still a pariah state, recognized only by Turkey; Nicosia was still Europe’s last divided capital.
—David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
This suggests that the Kinahans remain bedfellows with geopolitical pariahs.
—Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025
Long ensnared in his long relationship with the now deceased Epstein, who supposedly committed suicide while in police custody in 2019, Andrew has become a public pariah to his image-conscious family since his mother’s death in 2022.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pariah
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Scott Meslow, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was still a pariah state, recognized only by Turkey; Nicosia was still Europe’s last divided capital.
—David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
This suggests that the Kinahans remain bedfellows with geopolitical pariahs.
—Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025
Long ensnared in his long relationship with the now deceased Epstein, who supposedly committed suicide while in police custody in 2019, Andrew has become a public pariah to his image-conscious family since his mother’s death in 2022.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pariah
Cite this Entry
“Pariah.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pariah. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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