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Showing results for dehumanize. Search instead for rehumanized.
Definitions

dehumanize

[dee-hyoo-muh-nahyz, -yoo-] / diˈhju məˌnaɪz, -ˈju- /
VERB
to deprive of dignity; treat as less than human
Synonyms
STRONGEST
STRONG
WEAK
barbarize brutalize imbrute
Antonyms


VERB
remove the need for human skills
Synonyms
Antonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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It’s a reminder that when someone tries to dehumanize you, laughing in their face can be a declaration of personhood.

From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2025

“We need to support artists, not dehumanize them.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025

Social media has a way of exacerbating preexisting social tensions and divisions, making it easier to dehumanize the other side and engage in a kind of verbal warfare.

From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2025

“They should not be taught as simply a problem or conflict but as people. Once you teach their history in context, it’s much more difficult to dehumanize them.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2024

Treating differences as a threat enables one society to dehumanize the other.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

The word “denigrates Native American women and dehumanizes them,” Ramos said in a statement announcing the name changes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024

It’s tragic that she, in that moment, dehumanizes not only her family, but herself.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2024

“The use of the word ‘inmate’ further dehumanizes and demoralizes them,” he said in Ms. Hochul’s press release.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 9, 2022

“It really dehumanizes the events, the consequences of shootings, and makes it all into a joke,” said Whitney Phillips, a longtime disinformation researcher.

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2022

The wonderful device meant to enrich life has become a weapon which dehumanizes people.

From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling

The press corps has a job to do, but observers say its presence and callous pursuit of images that will sell can make immigrants feel dehumanized.

From Slate ● Oct. 10, 2025

“Migrants are dehumanized and considered as nothing more than potential labor, entitled only to precarious regularization offers,” the French association said.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 6, 2023

“In this time when people are so dehumanized, and treated as one-dimensional, we need stories that put fully fledged humanity on display.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2023

“It depersonalized and dehumanized radio because suddenly you had one programmer programming multiple stations across the country,” McNeill said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2023

“People as far on the fringes as you can get, completely dehumanized by ‘normal’ society.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

Like the billionaire geniuses who created social media that wound up depressing, dumbing down and dehumanizing civilization, the motives of these companies were purely financial.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Pope Leo XIV on Monday warned that AI risked enshrining “an anti-human vision,” replacing jobs with dehumanizing work and consuming vast amounts of water and energy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

They added that they "oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people" and "pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence".

From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2025

What they refrain from hurling in that moment, or at any point throughout “Welcome to Derry,” is a dehumanizing slur splashed all over the pages of the original “It.”

From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2025

The change helped insulate agents from local corruption and created a truly national force, yet it also ignored regional difference and had the dehumanizing effect of constantly uprooting employees.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann




Vocabulary lists containing dehumanize


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