discrimination
/dɪˌskrɪmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex: victims of racial discrimination discrimination against homosexuals...
- His attorneys argued the different treatment represents discrimination against gays and lesbians and is unconstitutional.
- Then they say that discrimination against gays is unjust, but backhand them saying that same-sex unions aren't equivalent to marriage.
- Affirmative action, for them, was no less invidious than traditional race discrimination against disadvantaged minorities.
Synonyms
prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, unfairness, inequity, favouritism, one-sidedness, partisanship;
sexism, chauvinism, racism, racialism, anti-Semitism, heterosexism, ageism, classism;
positive discrimination, reverse discrimination, ableism
in South Africa, historical apartheid
2Recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another: discrimination between right and wrong [count noun]: young children have difficulties in making fine discriminations...
- The next dream certainly suggests continuing rehabilitation via the very acute perceptions and fine discriminations that are now taking place among the various sides of my personality in creative confrontation with each other.
- Such incommensurability should not be understood as a reflection of our inability to make fine discriminations between divergent ways of life.
- It promotes disinterestedness, teaches sensitivity and fine discriminations, produces identifications with men and women of other conditions, thus promoting fellow-feeling.
Synonyms
differentiation, distinction, telling the difference
2.1The ability to judge what is of high quality; good judgement or taste: those who could afford to buy showed little taste or discrimination...
- Shifting the emphasis from matters of taste, discrimination or aesthetics, media education now borrowed from new sources and began to ask new questions.
- A collection is a revealing reflection of the taste discrimination of the collector and of his aesthetic sensibility.
- In record shops, they both stood apart as labels that were run by and for connoisseurs, shields of taste and discrimination.
Synonyms
discernment, judgement, perception, perceptiveness, perspicacity, acumen, astuteness, shrewdness, judiciousness, insight, subtlety;
selectivity, (good) taste, fastidiousness, refinement, sensitivity, cultivation, culture, culturedness, connoisseurship, aestheticism
2.2 Psychology The ability to distinguish between different stimuli: [as modifier]: discrimination learning...
- His own research interests lie in traditional associative learning theory and in discrimination and perceptual learning.
- More recently, researchers have shown that unreinforced preexposure to two stimuli can later assist discrimination between them.
- Thus, there were also 8 stimuli for the successive discrimination.
3 Electronics The selection of a signal having a required characteristic, such as frequency or amplitude, by means of a discriminator.The advantage of this technique over conventional one-photon fluorescence is better signal strength and discrimination using less light energy....
- If this high level of cross polarization discrimination is not required, the added cost provides no system benefit.
- The new program features superior discrimination of fluorescent signals and substantially reduces the need for user intervention during image processing.