rejection
B1 (Intermediate)Neutral to formal; common in professional, academic, and personal contexts.
Definition
Meaning
The act of refusing to accept, consider, or grant something; dismissal.
The state of being discarded, excluded, or rebuffed; also, in medicine, the immune system's attack on transplanted tissue.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Primarily a noun. Implies an active, often negative, decision against something/someone. Can carry emotional weight of dismissal or exclusion.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
Minimal lexical difference. 'Rejection slip' (for manuscripts) is common in both, but 'rejection letter' is slightly more frequent in AmE.
Connotations
Identical core meaning. In informal contexts, both use 'brush-off' or 'knock-back' (UK) as synonyms.
Frequency
Equally common in both varieties.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
rejection of + [idea/plan/offer]rejection by + [person/group]rejection from + [institution/source]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “meet with rejection”
- “get the thumbs down”
- “be given the cold shoulder (for social rejection)”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Referring to declined proposals, job applications, or loan requests.
Academic
Referring to non-acceptance of papers by journals, theories by peers, or research proposals.
Everyday
Referring to romantic refusals, social exclusion, or declined invitations.
Technical
In medicine: immune response to a transplant; in engineering: failure of a part/component.
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- The council rejected the planning application after local objections.
- She rejected his apology outright.
American English
- The committee rejected the proposal due to budget concerns.
- He felt rejected after not making the team.
adverb
British English
- The offer was rejectioningly low, so she walked away.
- (Note: 'rejectingly' is rare; 'dismissively' is more common)
American English
- He looked at the proposal rejectioningly before tossing it aside.
- (Note: 'rejectingly' is rare; 'with rejection' is more common)
adjective
British English
- She gave him a rejection letter with standard wording.
- The patient showed rejection symptoms post-transplant.
American English
- He received a rejection email from the recruiter.
- The rejection rate for applications is high this year.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- I got a rejection for my job application.
- Her idea met with rejection from the class.
- The sudden rejection of his offer left him confused.
- Fear of rejection often stops people from asking for help.
- The manuscript's rejection was based on methodological flaws noted by the reviewers.
- Chronic feelings of social rejection can impact mental health.
- The court's rejection of the precedent-setting argument created a legal quandary.
- The novel explores the protagonist's existential angst stemming from paternal rejection.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of a vending machine REJECTING a crumpled banknote. The machine says 'NO' to accepting it.
Conceptual Metaphor
REJECTION IS PHYSICAL EJECTION / THROWING BACK (e.g., 'His idea was thrown out', 'She was cast out from the group').
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Do not confuse with 'projection' (проекция). 'Rejection' is отклонение, отказ, неприятие.
- Avoid calquing 'make a rejection' – use 'reject' (verb) or 'issue a rejection'.
Common Mistakes
- Incorrect: 'I took a rejection from the university.' Correct: 'I received a rejection from the university.'
- Incorrect: 'He felt a strong rejection.' Correct: 'He felt intense rejection.' or 'He felt deeply rejected.'
Practice
Quiz
In which context is 'rejection' used in a highly technical, medical sense?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Mostly yes, as it signifies refusal or exclusion. However, in contexts like peer review, it can be a neutral part of a process leading to improvement.
'Refusal' is a direct 'no' to a request or demand. 'Rejection' is broader, often implying dismissal of the thing/person itself as inadequate or unwanted (e.g., rejecting a person, an idea, a transplant).
Yes. You can talk about 'feeling rejection' (uncountable emotion) or 'receiving a rejection' (countable instance).
The verb 'to reject' is most common, followed by the noun in patterns like 'face rejection', 'meet with rejection', or 'rejection of something'.
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