prejudiced

adjective

prej·​u·​diced ˈpre-jə-dəst How to pronounce prejudiced (audio)
: resulting from or having a prejudice or bias for or especially against

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Prejudice: For or Against?

Although prejudice, with its connotations of intolerance , implies a negative bias, the word can be used in positive constructions:

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

Examples of prejudiced in a Sentence

Most Americans deny being prejudiced against people of other races. I was prejudiced against the movie because of its title.
Recent Examples on the Web One Muslim employee, who has had an unblemished career, says they had been accused of being prejudiced towards Jewish people without justification. Jake Kanter, Deadline, 20 June 2024 Another problem, of course, is that the data on which the models are trained—billions of words taken from digital sources—contain plenty of prejudiced and stereotyped statements about people. David Berreby, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2024 Until the latter part of the 20th century, LGBTQ behavior was thought of negatively by an overwhelming number of voters, and prejudiced jokes told in public were often met with laughter, not with condemnation. Kenneth S. Birnbaum, Baltimore Sun, 14 May 2024 In her own eyes, Hannah cannot escape the shadow of her crimes, which are the innocent mistakes of a young woman criminalized by a prejudiced populace. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 9 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for prejudiced 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prejudiced.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of prejudiced was in 1579

Dictionary Entries Near prejudiced

Cite this Entry

“Prejudiced.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudiced. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.

Legal Definition

prejudiced

adjective
prej·​u·​diced
ˈpre-jə-dəst
: resulting from or having a prejudice or bias for or especially against
alleged that the trial judge was prejudiced

More from Merriam-Webster on prejudiced

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