oppressed

adjective

op·​pressed ə-ˈprest 

: burdened by abuse of power or authority

Group identity in oppressed groups is always very strategic, always a calculation of advantage.

—Shelby Steele

They are neither oppressed minorities, whose needs have been etched into the nation's consciousness, nor members of the ruling elite, born with their hands on the reins of power.

—Anthony DeCurtis

Synonyms

• persecuted

Examples of oppressed in a Sentence

setting out on a quixotic quest to right wrongs and to raise up the oppressed peoples of the world

Recent Examples on the Web

My hope is that people will rally behind my message, and the Pride Warriors can be used as a tool to unite the LGBTQA community, both with each other, and with other marginalised and oppressed communities such as people of color, immigrants, and women. —Gary Adrian Randall, Denver Post, 25 June 2025

There’s something dubious about this mythology—why has a real-life, much oppressed ethnicity been made cinematically synonymous with a league of contract killers?—but its development, nonetheless, has been engrossing by dint of its complexity. —Richard Brody, New Yorker, 5 June 2025

The character is a powerful metaphor of oppressed women, challenging patriarchal norms, and has emerged as a symbol of female strength and resilience within the Indian horror genre. —Sunil Sadarangani, Deadline, 20 May 2025

Taking part in a cultural boycott as an act of solidarity with an oppressed people is politics and saying no, art should be separate from politics is politics. —Kamila Shamsie june 20, Literary Hub, 20 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing oppressed

• the oppressed

Rhymes for oppressed

• acquiesced
• coalesced
• dispossessed
• manifest
• overdressed
• overstressed
• prepossessed
• reassessed
• reinvest
• repossessed
• unaddressed
• uncompressed