Meanings
plural miscegenations
- UScountableuncountableThe mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.First known use 1863
Anissimov took to posting paranoid white supremacist rants on Twitter. Why, he asked, do “blacks get your own continent”? “European whites are being replaced and destroyed by ‘diversity,’” he cried. He denounced miscegenation and declared that women should be confined to the home.
2018, Corey Pein, Live Work Work Work Die, Metropolitan Books, →ISBN, unnumbered page - countablefigurativelyuncountableA mixing or blending, especially one which is considered to be inappropriate.
... if a miscegenation of Latin and Sanskrit may be permitted.
1981, Dale Maurice Riepe, Asian Philosophy Today, page 222 more examples
as is clear in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it has a horror of any spiritual miscegenation between the human and the natural.
1991, Frederick Turner, Rebirth of Value: Meditations on Beauty, Ecology, Religion, and Education, page 57...'true English' before it was bastardised in its miscegenation with the Norman French.
2001, Ken Hirschkop, David Shepherd, Bakhtin and Cultural Theory, page 180
Synonyms & antonyms
nounreproduction by parents of different races (especially by white and non-white persons)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Blend of Latin miscēre (“mix”) + Latin genus (“race”) + -ation. Coined by American journalist David Goodman Croly in 1864 and first used in an anonymous pamphlet he coauthored, which claimed to be written by a person who believed in the inherent unity of all racial groups, that marriage between blacks and whites would create a better race, and that the American Civil War was a fight for the latter idea. Later, it was exposed that the pretext of the pamphlet was false and that it had actually been written by a group which hoped to inflame anger, particularly against then-US President Abraham Lincoln who was up for reelection. Replaced previous amalgamation, from metallurgy.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic تَمَازُج الأَجْنَاسِ
- تَمَازُج الأَجْنَاسِ (tamāzuj al-ʔajnāsi)the mixing or blending of race
Bulgarian кръстосване на раси
- кръстосване на раси (krăstosvane na rasi)the mixing or blending of race
Chinese Mandarin 種族混合 /种族混合
- 種族混合 /种族混合 (zhǒngzú hùnhé)the mixing or blending of race
Dutch rassenvermening, verbastering
- rassenvermeningthe mixing or blending of race
- verbasteringthe mixing or blending of race
Finnish rodunsekoitus
- rodunsekoitusthe mixing or blending of race
French métissage
- métissagethe mixing or blending of race
Icelandic kynþáttablöndun
- kynþáttablöndunthe mixing or blending of race
Italian miscegenazione, mescolanza etnica
- miscegenazionethe mixing or blending of race
- mescolanza etnicathe mixing or blending of race
Norwegian raseblanding
- raseblandingthe mixing or blending of race
Portuguese miscigenação
- miscigenaçãothe mixing or blending of race
Russian смеше́ние n рас, метиса́ция
- смеше́ние n рас (smešénije)the mixing or blending of race
- метиса́ция (metisácija)the mixing or blending of race
Spanish mestizaje
- mestizajethe mixing or blending of race
Swedish rasblandning
- rasblandningthe mixing or blending of race
Tamil இடையினத் திருமணம்
- இடையினத் திருமணம் (iṭaiyiṉat tirumaṇam)the mixing or blending of race
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with miscegenation
Cite this entry
miscegenation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/miscegenation
“miscegenation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/miscegenation. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “miscegenation,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/miscegenation.
Source: miscegenation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.