What does the noun discrimination mean? Treating one or more members of a specified group unfairly as compared with other people.There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun discrimination learning. The meaning of DISCRIMINATION is prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment. How to use discrimination in a sentence. Direct discrimination. This means treating someone less favourably than someone else because of a protected characteristic. The practice of treating someone or a particular group in society less fairly than others. The Oxford Handbook of Workplace Discrimination provides a broad and interdisciplinary review of stateoftheart research on discrimination in the workplace. In a nutshell, racism is a perpetuation of historical, systematized discrimination.