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
Human smuggling is dehumanizing.
—
Pilar Arias, Fox News, 19 Mar. 2025
Writing in the early twentieth century, the sociologist Max Weber saw bureaucracy as dehumanizing, a coldly rational deprivation of human freedom.
—Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Frankenstein and Pinocchio explore the fraught dynamic between creator and creation, beings designed to mirror humanity while dehumanized for remaining fundamentally other.
—Silvia Park, TIME, 10 Mar. 2025
The temptation to dehumanize our enemies and label them as animals or insects aids to justify further violence.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Pilar Arias, Fox News, 19 Mar. 2025
Writing in the early twentieth century, the sociologist Max Weber saw bureaucracy as dehumanizing, a coldly rational deprivation of human freedom.
—Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025
Frankenstein and Pinocchio explore the fraught dynamic between creator and creation, beings designed to mirror humanity while dehumanized for remaining fundamentally other.
—Silvia Park, TIME, 10 Mar. 2025
The temptation to dehumanize our enemies and label them as animals or insects aids to justify further violence.
—William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dehumanize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dehumanize
Verb
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Shawn reluctantly agrees, but is humiliated when Cory starts acting corny around his friend Gambling Dan (Phil Buckman), and his lackey, Louie (Weiss).—
EW.com,
EW.com,
16 Apr. 2025
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He must be seen standing up to foreign oppressors who seek to humiliate China and thwart its rightful rise.—
Michael Schuman,
The Atlantic,
11 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Images of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators being tear-gassed, shot, and otherwise brutalized spread around the globe.—
Ben Ehrenreich,
Harpers Magazine,
26 Mar. 2025
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That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized and horrifically murdered.—
NPR,
NPR,
5 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Morgan was previously married to Keith Whitley from 1986 to his alcohol poisoning death in 1989 at age 34.—
Rachel DeSantis,
People.com,
17 Apr. 2025
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Scores of sea lions and dolphins have been fatally poisoned in recent months by domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by harmful algal blooms.—
Corinne Purtill,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dehumanize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dehumanize. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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