segregation
n. uncountablen. the act of keeping different groups of people apart, often because of their race, religion, or gender. It can also describe keeping things separate in science or nature.
n. the enforced or systematic separation of different groups, particularly based on race, ethnicity, or class. In biological contexts, it refers to the separation of alleles or chromosomes during meiosis.
The law ended racial segregation in public schools.
The city's history is marked by the segregation of neighborhoods, which created long-lasting economic gaps between different communities.
Sociologists argue that while legal segregation has been abolished, economic factors often lead to a de facto separation of social classes within modern urban environments.
1555. From Latin segregatio. Morphologically segregate + -ion.
Often followed by the preposition 'of' to identify the group being separated, or 'between' to identify the groups kept apart.