as in to humiliate
to make (someone) feel or behave more like an animal than a human being
being deprived of clothes dehumanized the prisoners
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Recent Examples of dehumanize
To fall in love with a chatbot or rely on it for friendship — to me that’s a pretty good definition of dehumanizing.
—
Nick Hilden, Rolling Stone, 24 Feb. 2026
Immigration detainees have described life inside the west suburban processing facility as dehumanizing, a Tribune investigation over the summer found.
—Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
Bad Bunny, Kehlani, Olivia Dean, Shaboozey, SZA, and Billie Eilish all used their platforms at the Grammys to talk about how ICE is dehumanizing immigrants and terrorizing American communities.
—Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 9 Feb. 2026
Extending a desire for wholeness not only to the victims of ICE harassment, but to the ICE agents themselves, recognizes that those who dehumanize others have lost sight of their own humanity.
—Emily Chamlee-Wright, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Nick Hilden, Rolling Stone, 24 Feb. 2026
Immigration detainees have described life inside the west suburban processing facility as dehumanizing, a Tribune investigation over the summer found.
—Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
Bad Bunny, Kehlani, Olivia Dean, Shaboozey, SZA, and Billie Eilish all used their platforms at the Grammys to talk about how ICE is dehumanizing immigrants and terrorizing American communities.
—Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 9 Feb. 2026
Extending a desire for wholeness not only to the victims of ICE harassment, but to the ICE agents themselves, recognizes that those who dehumanize others have lost sight of their own humanity.
—Emily Chamlee-Wright, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dehumanize
Verb
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Well, everyone in show business has to humiliate themselves sometimes.—
Katherine Turman,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
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But some Cubans still revere the 1959 revolution, and, as one foreign official told us, have no desire to humiliate Raúl Castro (Fidel’s 94-year-old brother and a former president), or even Díaz-Canel, who is widely viewed as a weak bureaucrat.—
Sarah Fitzpatrick,
The Atlantic,
22 Mar. 2026
Verb
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However, human rights groups say migrants are being brutalized and pushed back illegally at EU borders, while legal protections are increasingly being hollowed out.—
Sam McNeil,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
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Bakri is more brittle in Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher as Basem, a Palestinian teacher in the West Bank whose support for insurgents grows after his own son dies in prison and as Israeli settlers brutalize his neighborhood.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
24 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The second is a 100-day sludge line that will poison the reserves oil-hungry nations are racing to drain.—
Siddharth Misra,
Fortune,
28 Mar. 2026
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But would someone go so far as to poison a tree to keep the view open?—
Ashley Mackin Solomon,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Dehumanize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dehumanize. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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