discriminatory

discriminatory — adjective

1. describing rules, actions, or behaviour that treat particular people or groups l

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

describing rules, actions, or behaviour that treat particular people or groups less favourably than others, where the reason for the different treatment is a personal characteristic such as age, race, gender, or religion.

Example

Adaeze's manager admitted that the company's pay policy was discriminatory against female staff.

collocation: discriminatory against [group]

New voting rules affecting only one region were called discriminatory by the court.

passive: were called discriminatory by [authority]

Common collocations
  • discriminatory against
  • discriminatory practices
  • discriminatory policies
  • discriminatory laws
  • discriminatory treatment
  • racially discriminatory
  • sexually discriminatory
  • discriminatory behaviour
  • discriminatory hiring
Synonyms
  • prejudiced

    focuses on the inner attitude or bias; discriminatory describes the resulting action or policy

  • biased

    emphasizes favouring one side; discriminatory specifically involves treating a group worse, not just favouring another

  • unequal

    broader term covering any lack of equality; discriminatory implies unfairness based on personal characteristics

  • unfair

    more general in meaning; discriminatory is a specific type of unfairness tied to personal identity

Antonyms
  • fair

    treating everyone equally regardless of personal characteristics

  • equal

    ensuring the same treatment for all groups

  • impartial

    not favouring any side or group

  • unbiased

    free from prejudice in judgment

Grammar Patterns

be discriminatory against [group]

find/rule/declare something discriminatory

Usage Note

Frequently appears in legal, workplace, and policy contexts. When specifying who is affected, use the preposition against (e.g., discriminatory against older workers). This adjective is stronger than unfair — it specifically implies that the unequal treatment is based on a protected characteristic such as race, gender, or religion.

Common Mistakes

The teacher's comments were discriminating against girls.
The teacher's comments were discriminatory against girls.
discriminating means 'showing good judgment' in one sense; discriminatory means 'unfairly treating a group differently.'
The new rule is discriminatory to low-income families.
The new rule is discriminatory against low-income families.
the correct preposition after discriminatory is against, not to.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words describe a lack of fairness, but discriminatory is the most specific and legally significant term. Prejudiced and biased refer primarily to attitudes or feelings held inside a person — you can be prejudiced without ever acting on it. Unequal and unfair are broader: a test can be unfair because it is too hard, not because it targets a particular group. Discriminatory sits at the intersection of these: it describes an action, rule, or practice that treats someone worse specifically because of who they are (their race, gender, age, etc.). For example, a landlord who rejects all Asian applicants is practising discriminatory behaviour. The same action could also be called prejudiced (the attitude behind it) or unfair (a general description), but only discriminatory captures the link between the identity and the unequal treatment.

prejudicedbiasedunequalunfair ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • racially discriminatory
  • sexually discriminatory
  • highly discriminatory
  • allegedly discriminatory
  • clearly discriminatory

Phrases

  • discriminatory against women / minorities / older workers
  • find something discriminatory
  • rule something discriminatory
  • discriminatory in nature

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Comes from the Latin verb discriminare, meaning 'to divide or separate.' In English, discriminate first appeared in the 1600s with the neutral meaning 'to perceive a difference.' By the 1800s it had developed the negative sense of treating people unequally on the basis of group membership. The adjective discriminatory followed shortly after, becoming the standard term for describing unfair treatment based on race, gender, or other personal characteristics.