procrustean

/pɹəʊˈkɹʌsti.ən/

procrustean means enforcing strict conformity through disregard of individual differences or special circumstances.

procrustean is pronounced /pɹəʊˈkɹʌsti.ən/.

Why “procrustean” is a great word

Enforcing strict conformity through ruthless disregard for individual differences, typically by imposing an arbitrary, inflexible standard. From the name of the Greek mythological figure Procrustēs (literally 'the stretcher') + the English suffix -an, meaning 'of or pertaining to'; the figurative sense is attested from 1822. Unlike 'accommodating,' which yields to circumstance, or 'nuanced,' which respects subtlety, the procrustean method is a tyranny of the mean, an arithmetic of the axe. It is the school syllabus that ignores the prodigy and the struggler alike, the policy that shears away human complexity to meet a spreadsheet metric, the ideology that would break a soul upon the anvil of doctrine—the cold comfort of a system that fits everyone only because it has already decided how far you may grow.

adj

Enforcing strict conformity through disregard of individual differences or special circumstances.