as in oppressed
suffering grave abuse or injustice at the hands of one in authority
a war that was supposed to liberate the downtrodden citizens of that nation
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Recent Examples of downtrodden
Before diving into season 2, why not reacquaint yourself with The Pitt's heroic (and downtrodden) team?
—
Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Jan. 2026
But, the token rebounded early Tuesday and has continued to trade above the $90,000 level through the week, offering a glimmer of hope to downtrodden crypto investors.
—Sean Conlon,pia Singh, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2025
Tapping the engineer behind Johnny Cash renditions of Soundgarden and Glenn Danzig tunes casts Childers’s stories of downtrodden Americans in a new light.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
The exuberant Daniels was much more downtrodden, and there seemed to be many thoughts running through his mind.
—Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 28 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for downtrodden
Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Jan. 2026
But, the token rebounded early Tuesday and has continued to trade above the $90,000 level through the week, offering a glimmer of hope to downtrodden crypto investors.
—Sean Conlon,pia Singh, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2025
Tapping the engineer behind Johnny Cash renditions of Soundgarden and Glenn Danzig tunes casts Childers’s stories of downtrodden Americans in a new light.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
The exuberant Daniels was much more downtrodden, and there seemed to be many thoughts running through his mind.
—Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 28 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for downtrodden
Recent Examples of Synonyms for downtrodden
oppressed
Adjective
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The Irish were the original oppressed people from the English Empire, and the original colony.—
Dan Adler,
Vanity Fair,
15 May 2026
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The body pointed to the fact that Iran’s Farabi cinema body, which oversees the country’s submission, was directly controlled by the hardline Islamic Republic regime government, which in turn has suppressed freedom of speech and brutally oppressed filmmakers across its 47 years in power.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
4 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Downtrodden.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/downtrodden. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
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