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Myth vs Stereotype - What's the difference?

myth | stereotype |

As nouns the difference between myth and stereotype

is that myth is a traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc while stereotype is a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or .

As a verb stereotype is

to make a stereotype of someone or something, or characterize someone by a stereotype.

myth

English

Alternative forms

* mythe (rare or archaic)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
  • (uncountable) Such stories as a genre.
  • Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings.'' (E. Clodd, ''Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)
  • A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
  • A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend
  • Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)
  • A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
  • * Ld. Lytton
  • As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.

    See also

    * legend

    stereotype

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.
  • (printing) A metal printing plate cast from a matrix moulded from a raised printing surface.
  • (psychology) A person who is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.
  • (UML) An extensibility mechanism of the Unified Modeling Language
  • Verb

    (stereotyp)
  • To make a stereotype of someone or something, or characterize someone by a stereotype.
  • To prepare for printing in stereotype; to produce stereotype plates of.
  • to stereotype the Bible
  • To print from a stereotype.
  • (figurative) To make firm or permanent; to fix.
  • * Duke of Argyll (1887)
  • Powerful causes tending to stereotype and aggravate the poverty of old conditions.

    See also

    * stereotypic * stereotypical ----