discriminatory
Americanadjective
-
characterized by or showing prejudicial treatment, especially as an indication of bias related to age, race, skin color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, etc..
Discriminatory practices in housing historically led to racially segregated neighborhoods.
They passed a discriminatory tax mainly impacting immigrants to the country.
adjective
-
based on or showing prejudice; biased
-
capable of making fine distinctions
-
(of a statistical test) unbiased
Other Word Forms
- discriminatorily adverb
- nondiscriminatory adjective
- undiscriminatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of discriminatory
First recorded in 1820–30; discriminate + -ory 1
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.
Their motive, she claims, was discriminatory bias and a piece of legislation she wrote that law enforcement agencies did not like.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026
Illinois prohibits using AI in hiring decisions with discriminatory outcomes—a reasonable goal—but defines AI so broadly that nearly any recommendation system, including statistical methods that go back centuries, may be implicated.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
County said in a statement none of the reviews of the fire response has found “any discriminatory or structural bias in the County’s response.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2026
The organisation maintains that the policy is "unfair and discriminatory" and that the decision reflects "a fundamental misunderstanding of Freemasonry as it is today".
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
The fight for jobs was an old one, and little had changed in Durham since Louis Austin protested discriminatory hiring practices in 1953.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.