Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🗳️ Adding by decision 🤝 Absorbing opponents
co-optation

co-optation

7.9
Bringing people or ideas into a group to reduce opposition
  • noun
  • /koʊˌɑpˈteɪʃən/
  • Formal
translation icon : cooptación
  • Political parties often use co-optation to bring influential figures into their ranks.

Examples

  • The board's co-optation of critics helped prevent further public protests.

  • The co-optation of new ideas can make an organization more adaptable to change.

  • The party's co-optation of independent candidates was controversial.

  • Many critics argue that co-optation undermines true democratic processes.

  • The board's co-optation of critics helped prevent further public protests.

  • Political parties often use co-optation to bring influential figures into their ranks.

  • The co-optation of new ideas can make an organization more adaptable to change.

How Integrated

assimilation
19 5.7
co-optation
  • Formal
7.9
accommodation
  • Specialized
7 5.3
tolerance
160 3.7
exclusion
64 4.2

Surface Forms

co-optation singular
co-optations plural

Morphology

co-optation = co-opt (transparent) = co + opt + ation

Derived by suffixation from the verb 'co‑opt', so the sense 'the act of absorbing or assimilating' is directly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Co-optation comes from Latin co- 'together' and optare 'to choose', like option and opt. So, it can also mean 'choosing to include' people or ideas, bringing them into a group to reduce opposition or win support.