animalizing
Reducing to instinct
Animalizing is treating someone as less than human, reducing them to animal status.
The word appears in discussions of dehumanization—how propaganda animalizes enemies, how exploitation animalizes workers.
Less commonly, animalizing means giving something animal characteristics or qualities: The artist spent years animalizing household objects in her sculptures.
Cruel and uncivilized
- bestialResembling a savage creature
- inhumanDevoid of mercy
- savageFierce and untamed
- barbaricSavagely cruel, uncivilized
degrade · debase · objectify · demean · feral · vicious · brutal · callous
First in origin
- predatoryExploiting the vulnerable
- territorialDefensive about owned space
- instinctsInnate behavioral tendencies
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
mating · feral · visceral · unthinking · reactive · fight-or-flight · impulse · appetitive
Reverting to ancestral type
- primevalFrom earliest times
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- tribalOf a clan
- hunter-gathererPre-farming subsistence lifestyle
cave · totemism · shamanism · ritualistic · primal · regression · devolution · uncivilized
Cruel, violent person
- beastLarge wild animal
- swineDomestic porcine animals
- verminHarmful small animals
- pigDomesticated swine for meat
dog · rat · snake · parasite · vulture · hyena · jackal · mongrel
Attributing personality to things
- fableMoral tale with animals
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- bestiaryMedieval animal treatise
- metamorphosisProfound biological restructuring
symbolism · beastly · figurative · Kafkaesque · totemic · chimeric · lycanthropy · were-creature
brutish
Cruel and uncivilized
barbaric · degrade · debase · objectify · demean · feral · vicious · brutal · callous · heartless
primal
First in origin
- predatoryExploiting the vulnerable
- territorialDefensive about owned space
- instinctsInnate behavioral tendencies
survival · mating · feral · visceral · unthinking · reactive · fight-or-flight · impulse · appetitive · aggressive
atavistic
Reverting to ancestral type
- primevalFrom earliest times
- prehistoricBefore documented civilization
- tribalOf a clan
hunter-gatherer · cave · totemism · shamanism · ritualistic · primal · regression · devolution · uncivilized · savage
brute
Cruel, violent person
pig · dog · rat · snake · parasite · vulture · hyena · jackal · mongrel · shark
anthropomorphism
Attributing personality to things
- fableMoral tale with animals
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- bestiaryMedieval animal treatise
metamorphosis · symbolism · beastly · figurative · Kafkaesque · totemic · chimeric · lycanthropy · were-creature · shapeshifting
animalizingcivilizing
Making more refined
refining · cultivating · humanizing · domesticating · taming
animalizinghumanizing
Making more relatable
dignifying · ennobling · elevating · honoring · respecting
animalizingspiritualizing
Imbuing with transcendent significance
intellectualizing · rationalizing · sublimating · transcending · enlightening
animal, animals, animated, animation, animate, animosity, animating, animus, anime