Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Humiliate |
HumiliateVerb1. Lower in esteem; hurt the pride of. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "humiliate" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1596. (references) |
Note: Humiliate \Hu*mil"i*ate\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Humiliated; present participle verb or noun Humiliating.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Humiliation is literally the act of being made humble, or reduced in standing or prestige. However, the term has much in common with the emotion of shame. Humiliation is not in general a pleasant experience, as it reduces the ego.Humiliation need not involve another person; it can be a recognition of one's own standing, and can be a way of casting away false pride.
Humiliation of one person by another is often used as a way of asserting power over others, and is a common form of oppression or abuse. Many punishments are deliberately designed to be humiliating, e.g. tarring and feathering, pillory, mark of infamy (stigma).
However, some people find humiliation by others erotic in certain circumstances: see erotic humiliation.
See also:
- Self-abasement
- Degradation
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Humiliation."
Synonyms: HumiliateSynonyms: abase (v), chagrin (v), humble (v), mortify (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Humility | Render humble; humble, humiliate; let down, set down, take down, tread down, frown down; snub, abash, abase, make one sing small, strike dumb; teach one his distance; put down, take down a peg, take down a peg lower; throw into the shade, cast into the shade; stare out of countenance, put out of countenance; put to the blush; confuse, ashame, mortify, disgrace, crush; send away with a flea in one's ear. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Humiliate |
| English words defined with "humiliate": crush ♦ demolish ♦ ridicule ♦ To preach down, To put one's nose out of joint, To set down ♦ Unplume. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "humiliate": Baptism, Blind Man's Buff ♦ License ♦ Nose Out of Joint. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The best thing you have going for you is your willingness to humiliate yourself (As Good As It Gets; writing credit: Mark Andrus) You're going to humiliate me, aren't you (My Best Friend's Wedding; writing credit: Ronald Bass) We've put a man on the moon, but we haven't come up with a hospital gown that doesn't totally humiliate you. (The Dead Zone; writing credit: Aleksandar Djordjevic) Angel, a monument to unholy carnality, and a cesspool of marital pollution, a shameless, brazen, bulldozing female prepared to humiliate, provoke, and tantalize, savagely seeking the tranquilizer of unrestrained fulfillment (Good Morning... and Goodbye!; writing credit: Jack Moran) I wouldn't humiliate you (The Big Valley; writing credit: Jean-Claude Carrière) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Human Rights | Pakistan | Persons pay the police to humiliate their opponents and to avenge their personal grievances. (references) |
Cote d'Ivoire | According to local human rights groups, police and gendarmes beat and humiliate detainees or prisoners. (references) | |
Cuba | Human Rights Watch reported that in 1999 the Government revised the Penal Code to prohibit the use of corporal punishment on prisoners and the use of any means to humiliate prisoners or to lessen their dignity; however, the revised code failed to establish penalties for committing such acts, and they continued to occur in practice. (references) | |
Political Rights | Singapore | In the past, the Government also has used parliamentary censure or the threat of censure to humiliate or intimidate opposition leaders. (references) |
Women | Pakistan | No executions have been carried out under this law and conviction rates remain low because rape, and gang rape in particular, commonly is used by landlords and criminal bosses to humiliate and terrorize local residents. (references) |
India | The Committee notes that inability to prove those important events by documentation prevents effective implementation of laws that protect girls from sexual exploitation and trafficking, child labor and forced or early marriage." Dalit ("untouchable" caste) women have been stripped naked by mobs, and paraded around in public to humiliate Dalits who offend other castes. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Humiliate" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 83.49% of the time. "Humiliate" is used about 109 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 83.49% | 91 | 34,491 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 13.76% | 15 | 90,616 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.75% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 109 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
humiliate | 48 |
humiliate my husband | 8 |
humiliate man | 8 |
humiliate the male | 7 |
cuckold humiliate | 3 |
humiliate wife | 3 |
humiliate man story woman | 2 |
humiliate slave | 2 |
her humiliate ways | 2 |
humiliate man who woman | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "humiliate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | turpëroj (attaint, confuse, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, dishonour, mortify, spot), poshtëroj (abase, demean, humble, let down, lower, mortify, vituperate, wipe the floor with). (various references) | |
Arabic | ذل (abase, be low, debase, degradation, demean, humble, humbleness, ignominy, let down, lowness, mortify, prostration), أخزى (degrade, discountenance, discredit, disgrace, dishonor, dishonour, shame). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | унижавам (abase, bring down, condescend, debase, degrade, demean, disgrace, gall, humble, lour, lower, mortify, prostrate, put down, sink). (various references) | |
Chinese | 羞辱 (baffle), 欺凌 (humiliated, humiliating). (various references) | |
Czech | ponížit (abase, debase, degrade, humble, tame), pokořit (humble, mortify). (various references) | |
Farsi | پست کردن (Abase, Abject, Debase, Degrade, Demean, Disparage, Disrate, Humble, Mortify, Post), تحقیرکردن (Abject, Calldown, Despise, Score), اهانت کردن به . (various references) | |
Finnish | nöyryyttää (humble). (various references) | |
French | humilions, humiliez, humilier (humble), humilient, gifler. (various references) | |
German | erniedrigen (abase, abate, decrease, degrade, flat, flatten, humble, lower, to abase, to humiliate, vulgarize). (various references) | |
Greek | εξευτελίζω (abase, debase, degrade, demean, depredate, derogate, discredit, vilify). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לעלוב (affront, insult, put to shame), לעלב (affront, insult), ל"שפיל (abase, debase, degrade, demean, humble, lower, mortify, snub). (various references) | |
Hungarian | megaláz (abase, abject, humble, to abase, to abject, to humble, to humiliate, to keelhaul, to lower, to put down, to slight), lealacsonyít (degrade, to abject, to debase, to degrade, to disparage, to humiliate, to lay flat, to lay low). (various references) | |
Indonesian | merendahkan (attemper, blacken, debase, lower), menghina (contempt, debase, deride, derogatory, insult, misprize, opprobrious, taunt), mengaibkan (bring disgrace on, reprimand), memfadihatkan (disgrace). (various references) | |
Italian | umiliare (abase, humble, humble oneself, lower, mortify, snub, squash). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 凹ます (to dent, to depress, to humiliate, to indent), 凹ませる (to dent, to depress, to humiliate, to indent). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | へ"ます (to dent, to depress, to humiliate, to indent), へ"ませる (to dent, to depress, to humiliate, to indent). (various references) | |
Manx | injillaghey (change down, cheap, cheap morally, condescend, cut, cut down, debase, defer, degradation, degrade, demote, demotion, depreciate, depreciation, depress, depression, die down, humiliation, level down, reduce, reduction, relegate, sink, step down, subdue, subject, submit, subordinate, subordination, turn down, vulgarization, vulgarize). (various references) | |
Norwegian | ydmyke (humble). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | umiliatehay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | humilhar (abase, abash, bemean, cast down, cheapen, demean, depress, humble, let down, lour, lower, mortify, prostrate), rebaixar (abase, banalize, belittle, bemean, bust, crab, debase, decry, degrade, demean, demote, denigrate, depreciate, diminish, disparage, flange, humble, lower, mark down, put down, vilipend, vulgarize). (various references) | |
Romanian | umili (abase, abash, bear down, humble, mortify, snub, stoop, submit, take down), apleca (be inclined, bend, bow, enslave, hang down, incline, lower, slope, stoop, submit, surrender, tilt, tilt over), înjosi (abase, debase, degrade, humble, mortify, stoop). (various references) | |
Russian | унижать (abase, degrade, demean, depreciate, lower, mortify). (various references) | |
Scottish | irislich. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uniziti (abase), poniziti (abase, debase, degrade, demean, downgrade, humble, mortify). (various references) | |
Spanish | humillar (abase, abash, derogate, humble, lay low, lower, mortify, pull down, put down). (various references) | |
Swedish | förödmjuka (abase, do down, humble, mortify). (various references) | |
Thai | ขายหน้าขายตา. (various references) | |
Turkish | utandırmak (abash, bring disgrace on smb., confound, disgrace, embarrass, make smb. feel small, mortify, put smb. to confusion, put smb. to shame, put to the blush, scandalize, shame, wither), küçük düşürmek (abase, affront, bring into contempt, debase, degrade, depreciate, detract, disparage, give affront to, give smb. the wall, lessen, lower, make smb. feel small, run down, score smb. off, snub, stigmatize, stultify, take smb. down a peg), aşağılamak (abase, belittle, give smb. the wall, insult, pooh pooh, scorn, take down, talk down). (various references) | |
Turkmen | kemsitmek. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ображати (abuse, affront, damnify, dishonor, dishonour, frump, huff, injure, insult, offend, outrage, revile, umbrage), принижувати (belittle, невимушенІсть [f], deject, demean, derogate, detract, humble, lower, mortify, slur, snub, spite, vilify). (various references) | |
Welsh | darostwng (abase, humble, lower, subdue, subject). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | humilia, humiliabam, humiliaberis, humiliabis, humiliabit, humiliabitur, humiliabo, humiliabuntur, humiliamini, humiliando, humilians, humiliant, humiliantis, humiliare, humiliarer, humiliaret, humiliari, humiliassem, humiliasti, humiliat, humiliata, humiliati, humiliatique, humiliato, humiliatum, humiliatus, humiliatusque, humiliaverat, humiliaverit, humiliaverunt, humiliavi, humiliavimus, humiliavit, humiliemus, humilieris, humiliet, humilietis, humilior, suggillet. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | baissier. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "humiliate": humiliated, humiliates. (additional references) | |
| |
"Humiliate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: hamulate, humihia, humilate, humiliator, humilinate, Humilitas, humilitate, humuliate, Hunslete. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "humiliate" (pronounced hyuwmi"lēā't) |
| 5 | -i" l ē ā' t | affiliate. |
| 4 | -l ē ā' t | foliate, retaliate. |
| 3 | -ē ā' t | alleviate, appreciate, abbreviate, delineate, depreciate, deviate, differentiate, emaciate, enunciate, excoriate, expatriate, expiate, expropriate, glaciate, herniate, infuriate, ingratiate, initiate, irradiate, mediate, misappropriate, nauseate, negotiate, obviate, officiate, permeate, radiate, recreate, renegotiate, renunciate, repatriate, repudiate, substantiate. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-h-i-i-l-m-t-u" | |
-1 letter: lithemia. | |
-2 letters: lithium. | |
-3 letters: amulet, halite, hamlet, hamuli, helium, hiemal, humate, lithia, milieu, muleta, telium, thulia, ultima. | |
-4 letters: almeh, email, haulm, haute, hemal, hilum, ileum, ilium, laith, lathe, lathi, lehua, limit, litai, lithe, lutea, maile, metal, miaul, milia, telia, ulema, utile. | |
-5 letters: ahem, alit, alme, alum, amie, eath, elhi, emit, etui, haem, haet, hail, hale. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-h-i-i-l-m-t-u" | |
+1 letter: humiliated, humiliates. | |
+3 letters: epithalamium. | |
+4 letters: epithalamiums, hemagglutinin. | |
+5 letters: hemagglutinins. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.