Marginalized

How to spell marginalized

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce marginalized

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does marginalized mean?

1. verbTreated as insignificant or peripheral, and thereby excluded from power, attention, or full participation.

Marginalized in a sentence

• The report found that low-income families were systematically marginalized by the new policy.

• Many older workers felt marginalized once the company restructured its teams.

Where does marginalized come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base of this word is the Latin margo, margin-, which simply meant 'edge' or 'border', the same word that gave English 'margin', the blank strip running down the edge of a page. From the noun came the adjective 'marginal', describing something on the edge or of minor importance, and in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that idea was extended socially: a marginal person was someone pushed to the edge of mainstream life. The verb 'marginalize' was then coined by adding the productive -ize ending that turns a quality into an action, so to marginalize is literally to force someone or something out to the margins. 'Marginalized' is its past form, used both as a past tense and as an adjective for groups deprived of power or attention. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: the -al- and the -ize blur together when spoken, and the silent shift from 'margin' to the longer derived form tempts writers to drop a syllable.

How the word is built

• margin (edge, border)
• -al (adjective)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past participle)

British and American spelling

Marginalized is the American spelling. British English spells it marginalised.