discrimination
n. C / Un. treating a person or group of people unfairly because of who they are. This often happens because of their race, age, or gender.
n. the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Also refers to the cognitive ability to perceive and distinguish between subtle differences.
The company has strict rules against discrimination.
The new law aims to prevent discrimination against older workers during the hiring process.
While the legal framework focuses on systemic discrimination, the psychologist studied the fine discrimination of sensory inputs required for professional wine tasting.
Learned borrowing from Latin discrīminātiō, discrīminātiōnem, the action noun to discrīminō, discrīmināre (“distinguish”). Equivalent to discriminate + -ion. In English use from the 17th century.
Uncountable when referring to the social injustice of prejudice; countable when referring to the cognitive act of distinguishing between things.
discrimination for womendiscrimination against womenWhen referring to unfair treatment, the noun is followed by the preposition 'against'.