How to Use otherness in a Sentence

otherness

noun
  • As an American growing up in Africa, I always felt a sense of otherness.
  • My feet have always struck me as my tell of otherness, even more than my nose or hair or weight.
    — Savala Nolan, Harper's Magazine, 20 July 2021
  • And yeah, that feeling of otherness.
    — Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 29 Jan. 2026
  • But Jack’s otherness also worked against him.
    — Joyce Johnson, New Yorker, 23 May 2026
  • And, at times, those who are poor are treated as less than, and with an attitude of otherness.
    — Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 15 Dec. 2023
  • There is an otherness to Watanabe’s clothes, a removal from the norm.
    — Alexander Fury, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2016
  • The shame of our fat bodies was not separate from the shame of our brownness or our otherness.
    — Virgie Tovar, refinery29.com, 29 Mar. 2022
  • Rowling’s tale of a place where otherness was accepted didn’t in the end include them.
    — Claire Dederer, Vulture, 27 Apr. 2023
  • This feeling of otherness is probably a large part of what led me to become a writer.
    — Elena Sheppard, People.com, 14 Aug. 2025
  • That, along with my feelings of otherness, is what instigated my search.
    — Elle Decor Editors, ELLE Decor, 16 Nov. 2022
  • And so if this show at least helps grease any of those scratchy hard feelings that people have about otherness, then that’s just one more step [forward].
    — ELLE, 26 Mar. 2022
  • In the process, those kids, sidelined in a world of indifferent adults, have their otherness lifted, too.
    — Steven Zeitchik, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • In all that, there's some deeper metaphor, no doubt, about otherness, and all the ways that love and shame can sublimate even our core beliefs.
    — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 7 Sep. 2022
  • The best of them seem touched by an otherness, an otherlandishness, of being.
    — Jason Kehe, Wired, 21 Sep. 2020
  • That sensation of total otherness is harder and harder to find.
    — Francesca Babb, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Dec. 2018
  • Many of the writers delve into themes of otherness and immigration.
    — Rebecca Aydin, chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2017
  • His images convey a strange sense of otherness, of another place or another time.
    — CNN, 14 Sep. 2022
  • That hallway encounter was just part of a long history of people making sure redheads are well aware of their otherness.
    — Jessica Matlin, Allure, 15 Feb. 2018
  • One of the things that felt very exciting to me was the older attitudes towards queerness and otherness.
    — Zan Romanoff, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2020
  • That otherness goes so far as theorizing that Pelosi and other Democrats are lizards.
    — Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2022
  • There’s a lot of ways to tackle otherness and discrimination.
    — Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 10 Jan. 2026
  • That sense of otherness as a child fostered a deep compassion and empathy for outsiders that shaped the rest of Dressen's life.
    — Star Tribune, 22 Dec. 2020
  • How does Ciri’s emulation of Geralt prepare her to take on any foe or doom her to a life of otherness — or both?
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2021
  • To attempt to read and use languages other than one’s own, even if only a few phrases, is a mark of respect for the otherness of other people.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 19 June 2024
  • But instead of finding horror in the jungle, Fawcett finds transcendence in otherness.
    — Washington Post, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Maintaining the otherness of different people is a mark of dignity and respect for them and for oneself.
    — Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 22 Apr. 2026
  • But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.
    — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 22 Mar. 2022
  • Exactly how to integrate the feeling of racial otherness into the show was also an ongoing challenge for the cast.
    — Matt Stevens, New York Times, 18 June 2023
  • This disruption of the narrative of otherness mirrors the way people actually want to be seen.
    — Soleil Ho, SFChronicle.com, 26 Oct. 2019
  • Aunt Jemima is that kind of stereotype that is premised on this idea of Black inferiority and otherness.
    — Dominick Mastrangelo, Washington Examiner, 18 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'otherness.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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