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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

denigrate.

To criticize so as to besmirch; traduce, disparage or defame.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈdɛn.ɪ.ɡɹeɪ̯t/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈden.ɪ.ɡɹeɪ̯t/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also/ˈden.ɪ.ɡɹæɪ̯t/Australia/ˈden.ə.ɡɹæɪ̯t/New-Zealand

  1. To criticize so as to besmirch; traduce, disparage or defame.

    transitive

  2. To treat as worthless; belittle, degrade or disparage.

    transitive
    You have no right to denigrate people and things that you have no personal experience with.

  3. To blacken.

    rare · transitive
Where this word comes from

Derived from Latin dēnigrātus, the perfect passive participle of dēnigrō (“to blacken”) [see -ate (verb-forming suffix)], from dē- (“of; from”) + nigrō (“to blacken”) [from niger (“black”)]. Cognate with Middle English denigart(e) (“darkened, discolored”).

adj/ˈdɛn.ɪ.ɡɹeɪ̯t/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈden.ɪ.ɡɹeɪ̯t/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also/ˈden.ɪ.ɡɹæɪ̯t/Australia/ˈden.ə.ɡɹæɪ̯t/New-Zealand

  1. Blackened.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Derived from Latin dēnigrātus, the perfect passive participle of dēnigrō (“to blacken”) [see -ate (verb-forming suffix)], from dē- (“of; from”) + nigrō (“to blacken”) [from niger (“black”)]. Cognate with Middle English denigart(e) (“darkened, discolored”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.