Meaning of political correctness | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
   uncountable
2. Avoidance of expressions or actions that are disadvantageous or disquieting to institutions or authorities.
   uncountable
3. The result or product of being politically correct.
   countable

Equivalents

Examples

“The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones.”

“I mean, people who talk about political correctness as being a kind of thought police have no idea of what a thought police is. But political correctness does have the same mentality. It means that intellectual argument is doomed. Objective truth simply becomes a thing to jeer at, because obviously there's no such thing as objectivity—unless of course you're politically okay, in which case you can be objective. Any child can see through that, but many adults can't.”

“Political correctness cripples discourse, creates ugly language and is generally stupid.”

“Methodological considerations are further complicated by implications of political correctness in evaluating texts which, aside from their history and original form, have become accepted in a certain recension (vulgata) by institutions (typically, the national churches) which, in the opinion of some scholars, should be credited with a special status.”

CEFR level