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to integrate

to integrate

22 4.3
To end rules that separate people by race
  • verb
  • /ˈɪntɪɡreɪt/
translation icon : desegregar
  • Soon, baseball would become fully integrated or open to people of all races.
  • an integrated school
  • racially integrated
  • attend an integrated school

Were you part of the jeering crowd, Grandma, when Ruby Bridges was integrated?

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Examples

  • And so just outside of Austin, when forced to integrate, they did what they did across the South in many places.

  • Ruby Bridges was a six year old black girl who integrated New Orleans public schools when she was a child.

  • "Well, in my youth, I helped integrate a university back down South.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Then the school board forced us to integrate.

  • Three years ago, the Supreme Court said we have to integrate the schools.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Federal troops enforcing a court order integrated the University of Alabama today.

  • Republicans took steps to integrate former slaves into American life, to create for the first time a multiracial democracy.

  • In 1965, TCU became the first Southwest Conference school to integrate its basketball team.

    Academic text (2014)
  • A North Carolina family fought threats and intimidation after suing to integrate schools.

    Academic text (2004)
  • The school worked hard to integrate students from diverse backgrounds into its community.

Synonyms

to desegregate
vsto integrate
9 6.8

To end rules that keep people of different races separate in schools and other public places

focuses on opening institutions to all groups rather than ending rules

Antonyms

to discriminate
  • Offensive
120 4.9

To treat someone worse because of their race, sex or religion

to segregate
  • Offensive
67 6.8

To keep people apart and treat them differently because of race, religion, or gender

How Integrated

to assimilate
77 6.1
to integrate
22 4.3
to include
1.0
to segregate
  • Offensive
67 6.8

Surface Forms

integrate infinitive
integrated past
integrated past participle
integrating present participle
integrates third person singular

Morphology

integrate = integral (transparent) = integr + ate

The specific sense 'remove segregation; make part of the whole' is an application of the core meaning 'make whole' from 'integr-' + '-ate'.

Etymology

Integrate comes from Latin integer 'whole', and during the civil rights era it was used for opening places to all people. So to integrate schools or restaurants meant ending separation by race and making them part of one whole society.