Alternative forms

• ablism

Etymology

From able +‎ -ismCategory:English terms suffixed with -ism#ABLEISM, modelled on racism, sexism, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.bə.lɪ.zəm/, [-zm̩]Category:English 4-syllable words#ABLEISMCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ABLEISM

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ABLEISM
• Rhymes: -eɪbəlɪzəmCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪbəlɪzəm#ABLEISMCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪbəlɪzəm/4 syllables#ABLEISM
• Hyphenation: able‧ism

Noun

ableism (countable and uncountable, plural ableisms)Category:English lemmas#ABLEISMCategory:English nouns#ABLEISMCategory:English uncountable nouns#ABLEISMCategory:English countable nouns#ABLEISMCategory:English countable nouns#ABLEISMCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ABLEISMCategory:Pages with entries#ABLEISMCategory:Pages with 1 entry#ABLEISM

1. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#ABLEISM) Discrimination or prejudice against individuals with physical, intellectual, psychiatric, or other disabilities.

   Synonyms: able-bodyism, able-bodiedism, ablecentrism, disablism, handicapism [from late 20th c.]^[1]

   • 2019, Michelle R. Nario-Redmond, Ableism: The Causes and Consequences of Disability Prejudice‎, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     Ableism is your ability to find reasons to push us aside to keeps us in cages, leave our struggles out of the history pages … pretend we never existed. Ableism is when you say I'm the only disabled friend you've ever had. Ableism is when you say that and still don't understand why we feel invisible. Ableism is when you think I don't have a disability because you can't see it.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ABLEISM

2. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#ABLEISM) An instance of ableism.
   • 2010, Susan E. Cozzens, Jameson Wetmore, Nanotechnology and the Challenges of Equity, Equality and Development, page 101:

     Developing guidelines around which ableisms and favoritisms of abilities are ethical , e.g. which form and shape of competitiveness might be ethical and which might not, can be a useful tool for the governance of S&T.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ABLEISM

   • 2023, Dr. Bernadette "bird" Bowen, I have been the bad guy, page 242:

     And, as a media and communication PhD, I know this is because the English language itself is a media so biased, with ableisms so deeply built in, that roads (which seem to lead away from ableisms) in fact, lead directly back into them.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ABLEISM

   • 2024, Patrick McKelvey, Disability Works: Performance After Rehabilitation, page 198:

     Ultimately, NTWH mobilieze Stanislavsky not despite the ableisms that Sandahl identifies but on the basis that a critical rehabilitation of those ableisms might create the very conditions of authenticity in which people with disabilities could enter both the theatrical workforce and the braoader affective labor market.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ABLEISM

References

Further reading

• “ableism”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “ableism”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ableism”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Lambies, lambies, misable