prejudice

The word “prejudice” means an unfair opinion or attitude formed in advance, without real knowledge or evidence. In plain terms, a biased opinion held before knowing the facts, or (as a verb) to harm someone's chances unfairly.

“Prejudice” is pronounced PREHD-zhuh-dihs (/ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/ in IPA).

Here is “prejudice” used in a sentence: “He judged the candidate with obvious prejudice before the interview even started.”

Words with a similar meaning to “prejudice” include bigotry, bias, chauvinism, clannishness, discrimination and inequality.

The opposite of “prejudice” — its antonyms — are disinterest, equality, equity, fairness and impartiality.

Depending on how it is used, “prejudice” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “prejudice” comes from Latin. From Old French prejudice, from Latin praeiudicium ("a prior judgment or injury"), from prae- ("before") plus iudicium ("judgment").

“Prejudice” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

Prejudice is an unfair opinion or attitude formed in advance without real knowledge or evidence, existing internally as a belief. Discrimination is the act of treating people unfairly based on such attitudes, so prejudice is the mindset and discrimination is the behaviour that can result from it.

In law, to prejudice a case means to damage or harm its chances of a fair outcome, often by revealing biased information beforehand. This is why courts sometimes withhold certain evidence from juries, to avoid prejudicing their judgment.

By definition prejudice involves a biased opinion formed without real evidence, and while it is most often discussed in negative contexts such as bigotry, the underlying idea of pre-judging something can technically apply to unfairly favourable opinions as well.