disenfranchised

adjective

dis·​en·​fran·​chised ˌdis-in-ˈfran-ˌchīzd 

: deprived of some right, privilege, or immunity

Tough, resourceful, and determined to help her disenfranchised and disenchanted students learn how to learn and love it, Johnson employs a barrage of techniques.

—Donna Seaman

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill does what it can, but the millions of mentally ill remain the least supported, the most disenfranchised, and the most excluded people in our society today.

—Oliver Sacks

especially : deprived of the right to vote

The value of the right to vote, however, given the reality of racial voting patterns, will depend on whether it translates into political power and influence for the previously disenfranchised minority.

—Alan Freeman

Examples of disenfranchised in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2023, it was purchased by the city for $4.2 million as an investment in a historically disenfranchised corridor. —Desiree Mathurin, Charlotte Observer, 18 June 2025

Her recent work has focused on disenfranchised, often white men. —Caroline Frost, Deadline, 15 June 2025

Chicagoans are fiercely proud of their city's working-class reputation and Leo has a reputation in the Catholic Church for sticking up for worker's rights and the disenfranchised, something highly valued in the Windy City. —Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 10 May 2025

But along the way, these women found solidarity with other groups that felt disenfranchised under Mr. Yoon, and forged new bonds with traditional labor groups. —Yejin Gim, Christian Science Monitor, 2 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for disenfranchised

• americanized
• anathematized
• collateralized
• contextualized
• conventionalized
• demilitarized
• demineralized
• departmentalized
• industrialised
• industrialized
• materialised
• materialized