Skip to content
GREMockTests
GRE vocabulary

ostracize

verbHigh-frequency wordMore O words

to exclude someone from a group or society

Word origin: From Greek ostrakon, a potsherd used as a ballot for banishment.

Start a free GRE mock test 39 minutes · free · instant score
In a sentence

Ostracize in a sentence

Here are example sentences showing ostracize in a sentence.

Colleagues began to ostracize the whistleblower after he reported the fraud.

After he broke the strike, his former colleagues moved to ostracize him from every union gathering.

Synonyms
excludeshunbanish
Antonyms
welcomeembraceinclude

Quick GRE check

Question 1 of 3

3 questions, about 2 minutes. How would you do on the real test?

Verbal · Sentence Equivalence

The new intern was so blank that she completed in two days a backlog her predecessor had let pile up for weeks.

Select the two answers that give the sentence the same meaning. 0 of 2 selected.

Usage & nuance

Using “ostracize” well

To ostracize is to deliberately exclude or shun someone from a group, typically as collective punishment. It implies a social freezing-out rather than a single rejection.

Common questions

Questions about “ostracize”

Ostracize (verb) means to exclude someone from a group or society
Here is ostracize used in an example sentence: "Colleagues began to ostracize the whistleblower after he reported the fraud." Another example: "After he broke the strike, his former colleagues moved to ostracize him from every union gathering."
Common synonyms for ostracize include exclude, shun, banish.
Antonyms of ostracize include welcome, embrace, include.
Ostracize clusters with exclude, shun, and banish. Its antonyms welcome, embrace, and include mark the opposite action.
Yes. Ostracize is a high-frequency GRE word, so it is worth prioritising as you build your vocabulary.

See these words the way the GRE tests them.

Take the free 39-minute GRE Quick Mock Test and meet words like this inside real Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, with a worked solution for every answer.