Did you know?
Prejudice: For or Against?
Although prejudice, with its connotations of intolerance
I, too, appreciate projects that treat a difficult subject with rigor, although I'll confess to harboring a bit of prejudice toward thing-biographies.
Adam Baer, Harper's, May 2011
That's true for the participial adjective prejudiced as well:
“The question itself as posed in the survey obviously is prejudiced in favor of the program,” said Tod Story, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
Neal Morton, Las Vegas Review Journal, 2 Aug. 2016
In negative constructions, prejudice and prejudiced often precede against:
Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker on Tuesday ruled that claims of juror misconduct by former House Speaker Mike Hubbard failed to show that the jury was prejudiced against Hubbard.
Mike Cason, AL.com, 19 Oct. 2016
predilection, prepossession, prejudice, bias mean an attitude of mind that predisposes one to favor something.
predilection implies a strong liking deriving from one's temperament or experience.
prepossession suggests a fixed conception likely to preclude objective judgment of anything counter to it.
prejudice usually implies an unfavorable prepossession and connotes a feeling rooted in suspicion, fear, or intolerance.
bias implies an unreasoned and unfair distortion of judgment in favor of or against a person or thing.
Examples of prejudice in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prejudice.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Cite this Entry
2 of 2Noun
Middle English prejudice "injury from a judgment, an opinion formed before knowing the facts," from early French prejudice (same meaning), from Latin praejudicium "previous judgment," from prae- "pre-, before" and judicium "judgment," from judic-, judex "judge," from jus "right, law" and dicere "to say" — related to judge, just
2 of 2Noun
Old French, from Latin praejudicium previous judgment, damage, from prae- before + judicium judgment