prejudice

noun

prej·u·dice | \ ˈpre-jə-dəs

Definition of prejudice

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights especially : detriment to one's legal rights or claims

2a(1) : preconceived judgment or opinion

(2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge

b : an instance of such judgment or opinion

c : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

prejudice

verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

Definition of prejudice (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to injure or damage by some judgment or action (as in a case of law)

2 : to cause to have prejudice

Synonyms & Antonyms Choose the Right Synonym Prejudice: For or Against? Example Sentences Learn More about prejudice

Keep scrolling for more

Choose the Right Synonym for prejudice

Noun

predilection, prepossession, prejudice, bias mean an attitude of mind that predisposes one to favor something. predilection implies a strong liking deriving from one's temperament or experience. a predilection for travel prepossession suggests a fixed conception likely to preclude objective judgment of anything counter to it. a prepossession against technology prejudice usually implies an unfavorable prepossession and connotes a feeling rooted in suspicion, fear, or intolerance. a mindless prejudice against the unfamiliar bias implies an unreasoned and unfair distortion of judgment in favor of or against a person or thing. a strong bias toward the plaintiff

Prejudice: For or Against?

Although prejudice, with its connotations of intolerance , implies a negative bias, the word can be used in positive constructions:

I, too, appreciate projects that treat a difficult subject with rigor, although I'll confess to harboring a bit of prejudice toward thing-biographies.
Adam Baer, Harper's, May 2011

That's true for the participial adjective prejudiced as well:

“The question itself as posed in the survey obviously is prejudiced in favor of the program,” said Tod Story, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
Neal Morton, Las Vegas Review Journal, 2 Aug. 2016

In negative constructions, prejudice and prejudiced often precede against:

Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker on Tuesday ruled that claims of juror misconduct by former House Speaker Mike Hubbard failed to show that the jury was prejudiced against Hubbard.
Mike Cason, AL.com, 19 Oct. 2016

Examples of prejudice in a Sentence

Noun

But today most black Americans not hampered by poverty or prejudice take for granted their right to study Italian, listen to Britney Spears or opera, play in the NHL, eat Thai food, live anywhere, work anywhere, play anywhere, read and think and say anything. — Stephan Talty, Mulatto America, 2003 It is easy to suppose at this late date that there is barely any overt racism left in the United States, … Kennedy's catalog of mundane cases of explicit anti-black prejudice provides ample illustration of what lurks beneath the surface politeness of many whites. — John McWhorter, New Republic, 14 Jan. 2002 The boundaries between hate and prejudice and between prejudice and opinion and between opinion and truth are so complicated and blurred that any attempt to construct legal and political fire walls is a doomed and illiberal venture. — Andrew Sullivan, New York Times Magazine, 26 Sept. 1999 When my mother, who, unlike my father, was Jewish, encountered unpleasant social prejudice during my high-school years, I acquired a second marginal identity. — Carl E. Schorske, Thinking with History, 1998 The organization fights against racial prejudice. religious, racial, and sexual prejudices We tend to make these kinds of decisions according to our own prejudices. He has a prejudice against fast-food restaurants.

Verb

Paul Revere … engraved the drawing and printed hundreds of vividly colored copies, which traveled throughout the colonies. Well might one judge at Captain Preston's trial complain that "there has been a great deal done to prejudice the People against the Prisoner." — Hiller B. Zobel, American Heritage, July/August 1995 My friends would have had me delay my departure, but fearful of prejudicing my employers against me by such want of punctuality at the commencement of my undertaking, I persisted in keeping the appointment. — Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, 1847 all the bad stories I had heard about the incoming CEO prejudiced me against him even before the first meeting

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

And sexism and prejudice within their ranks have an impact on the research that the field produces. — Elena Hilton, Glamour, "Climate Change Will Disproportionately Affect Women, So Why Are Their Voices Being Ignored?," 22 Apr. 2019 How anti-Semitism is different from other forms of hate Anti-Semitism in America is a form of hate, but its motivations aren’t identical to other forms of prejudice. — Jane Coaston, Vox, "How the rise of conspiracy theory politics emboldens anti-Semitism," 31 Oct. 2018 Thanks to all that fought for this, braving the worst sort of prejudice. — Dom Calicchio, Fox News, "India's top court decriminalizes homosexual acts," 6 Sep. 2018 The prejudice in bill SB0364 is a little more discreet. — Alexis Jones, Marie Claire, "Taylor Swift Donated More Than $100k to Fight These Disgusting Anti-LGBTQ Bills," 9 Apr. 2019 Importantly, Blair wants to end the unease anyone feels using mobility aids, or the prejudice that might result when interacting with a person using one. — Amy Mackelden, Harper's BAZAAR, "Selma Blair Wants to Create an Accessible Fashion Line for Disabled People After MS Diagnosis," 27 Feb. 2019 In the late '40s and the '50s and the '60s, there was a serious prejudice against black people and Jews and women in the professional schools. — Alison Rose, Town & Country, "Park Avenue's Pet Whisperer," 3 Sep. 2014 Including Fonda, there are 25 inspiring change-makers who together fight against all forms of prejudice and inequality–racial, gender, and pay, amongst other issues. — Nicole Saunders, Harper's BAZAAR, "Jane Fonda Celebrates International Women's Day," 8 Mar. 2019 But fighting to end the outright prejudice and racist violence in Texas at this time meant taking on a system of white supremacists that weren’t afraid to shed blood. — Marilyn La Jeunesse, Teen Vogue, "Who Was Jovita Idár, the Radical Muckraking Mexican-American Journalist?," 12 Oct. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

In its ruling, the court said introducing past acts for which a defendant wasn’t charged as evidence to support conviction on a later crime could unfairly prejudice the jury. — Corinne Ramey, WSJ, "Harvey Weinstein Prosecutors Look Into Filmmaker’s Days at Miramax," 18 Sep. 2018 And, while mistakes are a natural part of the trial process, the mistake here prejudiced the government by conveying to the jury that the government had acted improperly and had violated court rules or procedures. — Aruna Viswanatha And Del Quentin Wilber, WSJ, "Bank Worker Testifies Manafort Signed Loan Application With False Information," 9 Aug. 2018 Writing for the majority Friday, Justice Richard Palmer said Skakel was prejudiced in the case by Sherman’s failure to obtain alibi testimony from witness Denis Ossorio. — Washington Post, "Court vacates Kennedy cousin Skakel’s murder conviction," 4 May 2018 Manafort's attorneys have argued that the intense media coverage of their client's case has saturated the potential jury pool, potentially prejudicing jurors against Manafort. — Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, "Manafort trial judge seeks government response to venue change, delay requests," 10 July 2018 Defence attorneys face a battle to prevent global revulsion against David and Louise Turpin from prejudicing their court case. — Dipesh Navsaria, Houston Chronicle, "What parents should know to prevent — and deal with — bug bites," 6 July 2018 Typically, the White House avoids interfering in criminal justice matters to ensure that such cases aren’t politicized or prejudiced. — Byron Tau, WSJ, "Senate Staffer Accused of Lying to FBI Requests Trump Gag Order," 19 June 2018 The law in England and Wales places restrictions on what can be reported during trials in order to avoid prejudicing a jury, and in this case the media was forbidden to report any details. — Siobhan Morrin, Time, "Why Tommy Robinson Was Jailed, and Why U.S. Rightwingers Care," 29 May 2018

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

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about prejudice

Dictionary Entries near prejudice

Statistics for prejudice

Last Updated

8 May 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for prejudice

The first known use of prejudice was in the 13th century

See more words from the same century

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for prejudice

prejudice

noun

English Language Learners Definition of prejudice

(Entry 1 of 2)

: an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.

: a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when it is not reasonable or logical

prejudice

verb

English Language Learners Definition of prejudice (Entry 2 of 2)

: to cause (someone) to have an unfair feeling of dislike for someone or something

formal : to have a harmful effect on (something, such as a legal case)

See the full definition for prejudice in the English Language Learners Dictionary

prejudice

noun

prej·u·dice | \ ˈpre-jə-dəs

Kids Definition of prejudice

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a liking or dislike for one rather than another especially without good reason She has a prejudice against department stores.

2 : a feeling of unfair dislike directed against an individual or a group because of some characteristic (as race or religion)

3 : injury or damage to a person's rights

prejudice

verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

Kids Definition of prejudice (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : to cause to have an unfair dislike of The incident prejudiced them against the company.

2 : to cause damage to (as a person's rights) Newspaper stories prejudiced the upcoming trial.

prejudice

noun

prej·u·dice | \ ˈpre-jə-dəs

Legal Definition of prejudice

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : injury or detriment to one's legal rights or claims (as from the action of another): as

a : substantial impairment of a defendant's ability to defend the court found no prejudice to the defendant by the lengthy delay in bringing charges

b : tendency for a decision on an improper basis (as past conduct) by a trier of fact whether an ex parte communication to a deliberating jury resulted in any reasonable possibility of prejudice to the defendant — National Law Journal

c : implied waiver of rights and privileges not explicitly retained District Court erred in attaching prejudice to prisoner's complaint for injunctive relief — National Law Journal

2 : a final and binding decision (as an adjudication on the merits) that bars further prosecution of the same cause of action or motion dismisses this case with prejudice the dismissal was without prejudice

3a : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics the Constitution does not prohibit laws based on prejudice per se— R. H. Bork

b : an attitude or disposition (as of a judge) that prevents impartiality that the judge before whom the matter is pending has a personal bias or prejudice…against him — U.S. Code

prejudice

transitive verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

Legal Definition of prejudice (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : to injure or damage the rights of by some legal action or prejudice if the joinder of offenses or defendants…appears to prejudice a defendant or the government — Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 14

2 : to injure or damage (rights) by some legal action or prejudice that the denial prejudiced his right to a fair trial this clause does not prejudice other rights