ageism
age·ism/ˈeɪd͡ʒ.ɪzm̩/noun
ageism is a noun meaning “The treating of a person or people, especially older people, differently from others based on assumptions, prejudices or/and stereotypes relating to…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-G-E-I-S-M and has 2 syllables (age·ism), and it appears about once in every 4 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of ageism is ageisms.
What does ageism mean?
noun
- 1
The treating of a person or people, especially older people, differently from others based on assumptions, prejudices or/and stereotypes relating to their age.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce ageism?
- /ˈeɪd͡ʒ.ɪzm̩/
- /ˈeɪd͡ʒ.ɪz.əm/
Ageism has 2 syllables, split age·ism in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ageism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ageism
- ageisms plural
- agism
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is ageism?
Ageism appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 59,387th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Ageism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the treating of a person or people differently from others based on assumptions :
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | âgisme |
| German | Altersdiskriminierung |
| Portuguese | idadismo, etarismo, ageísmo |
| Spanish | edadismo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ageism come from?
From age + -ism. Coined by American academic Robert N. Butler in 1969.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).