[ster-ee-uh-tahyp, steer-] 
noun, verb, -typed, -typ⋅ing.| 1. | a process, now often replaced by more advanced methods, for making metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mâché or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal. |
| 2. | a plate made by this process. |
| 3. | a set form; convention. |
| 4. | Sociology. a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group: The cowboy and Indian are American stereotypes. |
| 5. | to make a stereotype of. |
| 6. | to characterize or regard as a stereotype: The actor has been stereotyped as a villain. |
| 7. | to give a fixed form to. |
| ster·e·o·type (stěr'ē-ə-tīp', stîr'-) n.
[French stéréotype, stereotype printing : stéréo-, solid (from Greek stereo-; see stereo-) + type, printing type (from Old French, symbol, from Late Latin typus; see type).] ster'e·o·typ'er n., ster'e·o·typ'ic (-tĭp'ĭk), ster'e·o·typ'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj., ster'e·o·typ'i·cal·ly adv. |
A too-simple and therefore distorted image of a group, such as “Football players are stupid” or “The English are cold and unfriendly people.”
A generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.
stereotype
type of printing plate developed in the late 18th century and widely used in letterpress, newspaper, and other high-speed press runs. Stereotypes are made by locking the type columns, illustration plates, and advertising plates of a complete newspaper page in a form and molding a matrix, or mat, of papier-mache or similar material to it; the dried mat is used as a mold to cast the stereotype from hot metal. A stereotype plate is much stronger and more durable under the press run than would be the composed page of type. It is gradually being replaced, however, by photopolymer (photosensitive plastic) and lithographic plates.
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