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Glite Dictionary
stultification

stultification

1 9.9
Making people and ideas look useless and foolish by strict rules or by making fun of them
  • noun
  • /ˌstʌltɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
  • Formal
translation icon : estultificación
  • The new regulations led to a stultification of creativity among the artists in the community.

Stock market the stock market is an effect of the stultification of investment in the United States by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Examples

  • That's why the special government agencies for mass response programming and psychological stultification prefer to treat them in a more subtle manner.

    200 Motels (1971)

  • Freedom may be just a delusion of the small mind, but for once I'll take 'small' over this stultification.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Stock market the stock market is an effect of the stultification of investment in the United States by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Evan Carmichael

  • Early in his career, he showed most dramatically how using the "principles" means inventiveness, not stultification.

    Academic text (1994)

  • For many of these people, the norms are bureaucratic stultification, fear of change, and risk avoidance.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The loss of position, of name, of esteem—such a stultification of myself—such a triumph to others.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Hatred of "stultification" is why my friend Martin, perhaps the world's most devoted listener to the music of John Cage, hated so passionately "4'33? -- a bullshit.

    Blog text (17)

  • STULTIFICATION OF POLICY #

    Academic text (2013)

  • Here, I am very grateful to Rancière (and Jacotot) for giving a name—"stultification"—to a thing that I have encountered many times in experimental music and left politics.

    Blog text (17)

  • "In its activity," Ranciere writes of traditional education, "it thereby constantly confirms its own presupposition: the inequality of intelligence," an endless confirmation of what Jacotot called "stultification" (9).

    Blog text (17)

Synonyms

ridicule
vsstultification
  • Offensive
53 4.8

An act of making someone look silly so other people laugh at them

can use restrictions or mockery to make things seem pointless
denigration
vsstultification
  • Offensive
5 8.4

Unfair criticism that makes someone or their work seem bad

targets usefulness or sense of purpose rather than reputation alone
belittling
vsstultification
1 6.2

An action that makes someone seem unimportant or less valuable

aims more at portraying things as pointless or foolish rather than small
trivialization
vsstultification
  • US
1 7.1

Making something seem less important or serious than it is

narrows this to showing things as pointless or senseless rather than minor
deadening
vsstultification
1 7.3

A process that makes work feel dull and boring

works by making things seem pointless or foolish rather than simply dull
belittlement
vsstultification
1 7.1

Making someone feel small or unimportant

focuses on rendering things useless or foolish rather than merely less valued

Antonyms

validation
  • Specialized
75 4.3

An act of checking that something is true, correct, or acceptable

empowerment
49 3.9

The process of becoming stronger, more confident, and able to make choices

How Pointless

nullification
  • Formal
6 8.6
stultification
  • Formal
1 9.9
trivialization
  • US
1 7.1
to downplay
59 5.3

Surface Forms

stultification singular
stultifications plural

Morphology

stultification = stultify (semi-transparent) = stult + ify + ation

The noun is a regular nominalization of 'stultify', but the base verb is uncommon and the Latinate root is not likely to be recognized by many learners.

Etymology

The word stultification comes from an old Latin word stultus meaning 'foolish', and from the verb stultify meaning 'to make foolish'. So, stultification is the act of making something seem 'foolish' or 'useless', for example by strict rules or by mocking it.