prejudice

1 of 2

noun

prej·​u·​dice ˈpre-jə-dəs 

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

2

a(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

2 of 2

verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

transitive verb

1

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

2

: to cause to have prejudice

Did you know?

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

Synonyms

Noun

• bias
• favor
• nonobjectivity
• one-sidedness
• parti pris
• partiality
• partisanship
• ply
• tendentiousness

Verb

• bias
• poison
• turn

Choose the Right Synonym for prejudice

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

Example Sentences

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

See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Regrettably, these types of prejudice can also result in discrimination claims, which may trigger costly legal issues. —Johnny C. Taylor Jr., USA TODAY, 1 Mar. 2023

The neighbors are utterly scared and also full of prejudice. —Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2023

Black and white residents live in segregated neighborhoods, and old patterns of prejudice are still much in place. —Tom Nolan, WSJ, 3 Feb. 2023

But at the same time, a Black quadriplegic, who is also relatively or extremely poor, and gay or transgender too, can’t escape the sense that they are mired in multiple layers of prejudice. —Andrew Pulrang, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2023

Despite Charlie's past mistakes, most of the venom hurled at him during Darren Aronofsky's The Whale—adapted from Samuel D. Hunter’s stage play of the same name—has the unmistakable ring of prejudice. —Brianna Zigler, Chron, 19 Dec. 2022

This misperception may be the result of prejudice but also of the simple fact that, on average, teenagers of color spend less time being seen by the right mental-health professional. —Matt Richtel Bee Trofort, New York Times, 13 Dec. 2022

Gun violence and police brutality towards protesters is a result of prejudice. —Devi Shastri, Journal Sentinel, 12 Nov. 2022

Not free of prejudice, but not afraid of it, either. —K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2022

Verb

O’Kasey also argued that a delay wouldn’t prejudice the women suing, noting the alleged conduct occurred five to 17 years ago. —oregonlive, 16 Dec. 2020

All four defendants are also seeking to bar evidence of their salaries and other compensation from ComEd, saying it’s irrelevant and could prejudice the jury. —Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, 7 Feb. 2023

The petition alleges that a comedy roast performed by Ross and featuring Hall was filmed while the inmate was awaiting trial, the footage was then used by the prosecutors to help prejudice the jury against Hall, leading to his death sentence. —Sara Netzley, EW.com, 28 Dec. 2022

The Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that his legal counsel was deficient, but decided the deficiency did not prejudice the case. —Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 16 Sep. 2022

Philip Cohen, Masterson’s lead defense lawyer, asked for a mistrial, arguing that the testimony was likely to unfairly prejudice the case. —Gene Maddaus, Variety, 18 Oct. 2022

But when judges were shown to have colluded with prosecutors to prejudice the former president, he was released from prison. —Andrew Downie, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 Sep. 2022

Weinstein’s lawyers lost a bid to have the proceedings delayed over the film, with the judge rejecting their argument that publicity surrounding it would prejudice a potential jury against him. —Andrew Dalton, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2022

Weinstein's lawyers lost a bid to have the proceedings delayed over the film, with the judge rejecting their argument that publicity surrounding it would prejudice a potential jury against him. —CBS News, 8 Oct. 2022

See More

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin praejudicium previous judgment, damage, from prae- + judicium judgment — more at judicial

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

prejudice

1 of 2 noun

prej·​u·​dice ˈprej-əd-əs 

1

: injury or damage to a case at law or to one's rights

2

a

: a favoring or dislike of something without good reason

b

: unfriendly feelings directed against an individual, a group, or a race

prejudice

2 of 2 verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

1

: to cause damage to (as a case at law)

newspaper stories prejudiced the murder case

2

: to cause to have prejudice : bias

the incident prejudiced them against that company

Legal Definition

prejudice

1 of 2 noun

prej·​u·​dice ˈpre-jə-dəs 

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

3

a

: 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

2 of 2 transitive verb

prejudiced; prejudicing

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

History and Etymology for prejudice

Noun

Old French, from Latin praejudicium previous judgment, damage, from prae- before + judicium judgment