Lexic.us

Definition of Caste

1. Noun. Social status or position conferred by a system based on class. "Lose caste by doing work beneath one's station"

2. Noun. (Hinduism) a hereditary social class among Hindus; stratified according to ritual purity.

3. Noun. A social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth.

4. Noun. In some social insects (such as ants) a physically distinct individual or group of individuals specialized to perform certain functions in the colony.

Definition of Caste

1. n. One of the hereditary classes into which the Hindoos are divided according to the laws of Brahmanism.

Definition of Caste

1. Noun. Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Caste

1. a system of distinct social classes [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Caste

cast up cast up one's accounts castabilities castability castable castanea castaneous castanet castanetist castanetists

castanets castaway castaway(a) castaways caste (current term) caste-ridden caste system casted casted off casteism

casteisms casteless castelike castell castella castellan castellani castellanies castellans

Literary usage of Caste

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Selected Bibliography and Syllabus of the History of the South, 1584-1876 by Howard Haines Brinton, Roderick Langmere Haig-Brown, Alexander von Humboldt, John Nicol Farquhar, William Kenneth Boyd, John Washington Lockhart, Robert Reid, José López de Bustamante, Robert Preston Brooks, Jonnie (Lockhart) Wallis, Evergreen Press, F (1915)
"caste The main rules of caste which a Hindu has to observe relate to ... No man may marry outside his caste, and usually he is restricted to certain ..."

2. The World's Parliament of Religions: An Illustrated and Popular Story of the by John Henry Barrows (1893)
"Under those ancient social and political environments of India the institution of caste was greatly helpful, in centralizing and transmitting professional ..."

3. The Imperial Gazetteer of India by William Wilson Hunter (1886)
"These examples do not include the general opening of professions, effected by English education—the great solvent of caste. There is therefore a plasticity ..."

4. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1884)
"In Sind little detail was observed in abstracting information respecting caste. In the Bombay presidency 84% of the people are Hindus. ..."

5. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1833)
"Most of these subdivisions are really trade-organizations, many of them living in village-communities, which trace descent from a pure caste. ..."

6. Property and Contract in Their Relations to the Distribution of Wealth by Richard Theodore Ely, Samuel Peter Orth, Willford Isbell King (1914)
"CHAPTER III caste AND OTHER FORMS OF STATUS Perhaps there can scarcely be a better illustration of status than caste. According to caste a man is born into ..."

Other Resources: