pigeonholing

/ˈpɪdʒənˌhoʊlɪŋ/
noun
  1. The act of unfairly categorizing or labeling someone or something in a narrow, oversimplified way.
    • The manager's pigeonholing of employees into rigid roles hurt team creativity.
    • She refused to accept the pigeonholing of her art as just 'children's illustrations.'
    • Pigeonholing students by their test scores ignores their unique talents.
verb
  1. To unfairly categorize or label someone or something in a narrow, oversimplified way.
    • Teachers should avoid pigeonholing students based on first impressions.
    • The media tends to pigeonhole celebrities into one type of role.
    • Don't pigeonhole me as just a science person; I love poetry too.
What does "pigeonholing" mean? | whatsthatwordmean | whatsthatwordmean