stereotype
/ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/
stereotype means of an edition: printed in stereotype. It carries an Arena rating of 1516, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stereotype ranks #56 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #547 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words, #559 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #5,609 of 17,122 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
stereotype is pronounced /ˈstɛ.ɹi.əˌtaɪp/.
Why “stereotype” is a great word
A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of a person or group. From French stéréotype, from Greek stereos ("solid") + French type ("type"), the sociological sense was popularized in 1922 by Walter Lippmann in his book Public Opinion. Unlike an "archetype," an original model to be emulated, or a neutral "generalization" drawn from observation, the stereotype is a hardened and reductive mold. It is the lazy cartoon sketch that passes for a portrait, the prefabricated script assigned to a stranger, and the weight of a thousand identical newspaper columns pressed into public consciousness—the mind's crude defense against the exhausting complexity of individual lives.
Etymology
Borrowed from French stéréotype (adjective), equivalent to stereo- + type. Printing sense is from 1817; the “conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image” sense is recorded from 1922 in Walter Lippmann’s book Public Opinion.
adj
- Of an edition: printed in stereotype.
- Synonym of stereotyped.
noun
- A conventional, formulaic, and often oversimplified or exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of (a person or a group of people).e.g.“Not all Zumbetonians wear plimsolls. That's just a stereotype.”
- A person who is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.
- A metal printing plate cast from a matrix moulded from a raised printing surface.
- An extensibility mechanism of the Unified Modeling Language, allowing a new element to be derived from an existing one with added specializations.
verb
- To make a stereotype of someone or something, or characterize someone by a stereotype.
- To prepare for printing in stereotype; to produce stereotype plates of.e.g.“to stereotype the Bible”
- To print from a stereotype.
- To make firm or permanent; to fix.e.g.“Powerful causes tending to stereotype and aggravate the poverty of old conditions.”
Words closest in meaning
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