stereotype
/ˈstɛrɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp
/ /ˈstɪərɪə(ʊ)tʌɪp/noun
1A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing: the stereotype of the woman as the carer sexual and racial stereotypes...
- A person in this stage also participates in transforming racial and cultural stereotypes, biases, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.
- I think it transcends the ideas, stereotypes and societal expectations of what it means to be a man or a woman.
- This suggests that negative stereotypes are not widely held or are at least cloaked in external civility.
Synonyms
standard/conventional image, received idea, cliché, hackneyed idea, formula
1.1A person or thing that conforms to a widely held but oversimplified image of the class or type to which they belong: don’t treat anyone as a stereotype...
- But the characters are mostly one-dimensional stereotypes with little engaging depth.
- "Yet I'm not a stereotype of a Muslim woman," she says.
- This is a dramatist whose art consists of little more than pulling a string of cliches from a cast of stereotypes in an utterly contrived setting.
2A relief printing plate cast in a mould made from composed type or an original plate.
verb [with object]
View or represent as a stereotype: the city is too easily stereotyped as an industrial wasteland...
- People just do not understand the issues, or have stereotyped views of how a lesbian or gay man behaves and use it as a basis to criticise their lifestyle.
- The nine issues raised here point to the fact that overly simplified and stereotyped views of Africa still prevail.
- Isn't this a rather stereotyped view of the environment, Mr. President?
Synonyms
typecast, pigeonhole, conventionalize, standardize, categorize, compartmentalize, label, tag
stock, conventional, stereotypical, conventionalized, standardized, standard, formulaic, predictable;
hackneyed, clichéd, cliché-ridden, banal, trite, platitudinous, unoriginal, derivative, overused, overworked, well worn, stale, tired;
typecast
informal corny, old hat, hacky
Derivatives
stereotypic
- An intruder is something that should not be in the picture, an element that stops the normalized reading of the image, preventing stereotypic thinking and forcing the viewer to spend more time investigating the picture.
- The flatness and distance of their testimony is partly an artifact of using an interpreter, but education, class, and culture operate to homogenize them into stereotypic depictions.
- The fact of the matter is that these stereotypic caricatures remind all of us of the awful stereotypic caricatures which were common in the U.S. South in the early part of the 20th century.
stereotypically
- And so men are stereotypically the upholders of a false reason, because in this society they are powerful so they need some sort of rationale.
- Homosexuals are treated so stereotypically in this film.
- None of this suggests that all men are bad investors or all women good, but it does suggest that adding a few stereotypically female behaviours into our investing patterns may be no bad thing.
Origin
Late 18th century: from French stéréotype (adjective).