social ostracism
Deliberate community rejection
Social ostracism is the deliberate exclusion of a person from a group or community.
Unlike formal punishment, it operates through withdrawal—refusing to speak to someone, leaving them out of gatherings, acting as if they don't exist.
After she reported the misconduct, she faced social ostracism from her coworkers.
The practice can be explicit or subtle, but the effect is isolation.
- shunningDeliberately avoiding someone
- pariahRejected, shunned person
- stigmaMark of dishonor
- isolationComplete separation from others
- scapegoatingUnfairly assigning fault to innocents
caste systems · silent treatment · frozen out · social death · alienation · cancel culture · marginalization · peer rejection · apartheid · outcast · social exile · discrimination · exile · banishment · persona non grata · public shaming · lunchroom · blacklisting
- social crueltybullying, harassment, humiliation, shaming, mocking
- Christian persecutionNero, Colosseum, crucifixion, martyrdom, early church
- persecutionHolocaust, pogrom, genocide, pogroms, ethnic cleansing
- Leprosyleprosy, Hansen's disease, mycobacterium, bacillus, bacilli
- Stasi repressionStasi, secret police, informants, wiretapping, bugging
- vigilantismvigilante, vigilantism, lynch mob, lynching, mob justice
social ostracismsocial inclusion
Full societal participation
acceptance · belonging · inclusion · embrace · welcome
social ostracismhonor
High regard, moral dignity
veneration · acclaim · adulation · glorification · lionization
social ostracismphysical punishment
Pain-based behavioral correction
corporal punishment · bodily harm · incarceration · flogging · imprisonment