What does segregate mean?
Segregate means to separate people, things, or groups from one another. Its most familiar use is social or political: a society may be described as segregated when people are divided into separate communities or institutions on the basis of race, religion, gender, or another characteristic. The word can also mean to distinguish or isolate something, as when investigators segregate evidence in a laboratory or when data are separated into categories. In genetics, it refers to the process by which alleles or chromosomes become separated or assort differently. Segregate is closely related to segregation, the noun for the state or practice of being separated. Its connotations depend heavily on context: as a description of social division, it is usually critical and evokes exclusion; as a technical verb, it is descriptive rather than morally loaded.
To separate a person or group from others, especially into a distinct social, institutional, or physical group.
"The new policy would segregate emergency patients from other patients."
Social and political uses are generally critical, particularly when referring to discriminatory divisions.
To separate, distinguish, or isolate something from something else.
"The laboratory segregates samples according to the date on which they were collected."
To separate into distinct groups or become distinct from one another.
"The population segregates into two groups during the breeding season."
In genetics, to assort separately into different forms or to cause genetic elements to separate.
"The two alleles segregate when the cell undergoes meiosis."
Segregate comes from a Latin word built around grex, meaning a flock or herd: to segregate something is literally to separate it from the herd.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does segregate come from?
The English word comes from Latin segregare, a form of segregare meaning “to separate from the flock.” It was built from se-, meaning “apart,” and grex, meaning “flock, herd, or group.” The same Latin root grex underlies related words such as aggregate, congregate, and gregarious.
Related word forms
How segregate is actually used
In social and political contexts, segregate often carries a strongly negative historical association with racial, religious, or institutional discrimination. In biology and genetics, it is a technical term describing the separation or assortment of genetic elements.
Easily confused with segregate
To segregate is to set people or things apart from a group, whereas to seclude is to keep someone apart from ordinary social contact.
Segregate means to separate into groups or distinguish apart, while gradate means to arrange or change gradually in degree.