alienation
ay-lee-uh-NAY-shuhn
/ˌeɪliəˈneɪʃən/
The state or experience of being isolated from a group, activity, world, or one's own true self.
Describes emotional estrangement, where an individual feels like a stranger within society or within their own life.
The story behind the word. Derived from Latin alienus, meaning 'belonging to another'. In legal terms, 'alienation' was transferring property to another; philosophers repurposed it to describe transferring one's own agency away until one feels foreign to oneself.
Word relationships
- estrangement: Estrangement often applies to interpersonal relationships; alienation implies broader psychological or structural separation.
- integration: The process of bringing individuals into full, harmonious participation in a group.
Commonly confused with
- isolation: Isolation is physical or literal distance; alienation is psychological separation even while surrounded by others.
Word family
- alienate (verb): To cause someone to feel isolated or estranged.
- alienated (adjective): Feeling disconnected from others or self.
Collocations
- sense of alienation
- social alienation
- cultural alienation
- prevent alienation
Idioms & expressions
- feeling like an outsider
Example sentences
- "Industrial automation led to worker alienation as employees felt disconnected from the final product." Sociology
- "Living in a vast metropolis left him with a deep sense of social alienation." Psychology
Memory hook
ALIENation makes you feel like an ALIEN among your own people. Feeling like a foreigner to yourself.
When not to use
Avoid using it when you simply mean 'disliking someone'; it implies structural or internal disconnection.
Fun facts
- Karl Marx made alienation a core concept in political economy to describe workers under industrial capitalism.
Related words
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