redlined

Redlined is a term used in English to describe two distinct practices. In document editing, to redline a document is to indicate proposed changes by marking them in a colored form, historically red ink and later with tracked changes in software. A document that has undergone such markup is described as redlined. This usage spans legal, business, and publishing contexts, and aims to make revisions visible to reviewers and readers.

The second meaning refers to the historical and contemporary practice of redlining in housing and urban development. Redlining describes the discriminatory practice by lenders and insurers who restricted services for residents of certain areas, typically based on race or ethnicity. In the United States, the term originated from the color-coded maps created in the 1930s by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and other entities, in which neighborhoods with minority populations were outlined in red as high risk for mortgage lending. The practice contributed to systematic under-investment, declining property values, and persistent segregation, effects that are the subject of ongoing research and policy debate. Redlining was effectively curtailed by civil rights laws and fair housing enforcement, though analogues and discussions of exclusion in lending and urban policy continue.

In everyday usage, "redlined" can describe a document with marked edits or refer to areas deemed disfavored in a planning or policy context. The two senses are unrelated aside from the shared visual cue of red markings.