prejudiced

adjective

prej·​u·​diced ˈpre-jə-dəst 

: resulting from or having a prejudice or bias for or especially against

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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

• biased
• one-sided
• parti pris
• partial
• partisan

Examples of prejudiced in a Sentence

Most Americans deny being prejudiced against people of other races.

I was prejudiced against the movie because of its title.

Recent Examples on the Web

Whites and Coloured South Africans who have more contact with people of others races are considerably less prejudiced. —James L. Gibson, Foreign Affairs, 10 Feb. 2015

According to a Reddit thread, the Yelp activity was prompted by an influencer who was refused a comped bottle of expensive wine and then accused the restaurant staff of being prejudiced. —Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2024

Meyerbeer’s presence, once one of the most visible in the nineteenth-century opera scene, dimmed over time, aided by the Nazi suppression of Jewish works and, to no one’s surprise, prejudiced critiques from Wagner. —The New Yorker, 19 July 2024

At their worst, these histories, like the Soviet one, reduce Ukrainians to lazy, irresponsible, prejudiced country bumpkins with exaggerated penchants for vodka and violence. —Alexander J. Motyl, Foreign Affairs, 4 Aug. 2016

Word History

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

prejudiced

adjective

prej·​u·​diced

ˈpre-jə-dəst

: resulting from or having a prejudice or bias for or especially against

alleged that the trial judge was prejudiced