enfranchisement

1
2
as in suffrage
the right to formally express one's position or will in an election a time when enfranchisement was limited to white males who owned property

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of enfranchisement And in the young republic, enfranchisement quickly expanded further, with perhaps 80 percent of adult white men—90 percent in some states—coming to hold the right to vote. Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026 Many claim that with the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of women, and many other new laws like civil rights legislation and changing gender norms, there has been great progress. Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025 In theory, this transition inaugurates a chapter of enfranchisement, but in the next scene the Senegalese businessmen are in suits, and the white men return with briefcases full of money as bribes. Lovia Gyarkye, IndieWire, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enfranchisement
Noun
  • To Karice, that meant Samuel, Sarah's older brother, was born before emancipation.
    Lesley Stahl, CBS News, 6 Sep. 2026
  • The year 1933, Arendt contended, marked the close of the age of bourgeois emancipation and Jewish liberation, which brought an end to a feeling of security in the West and signaled that the new sense of security in the East was a pipe dream.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • Over the past century, feminist movements in France have also successfully pioneered campaigns for women’s suffrage, reproductive rights and greater gender equality.
    Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2026
  • Or that women’s suffrage in America was first secured here thanks to a bill introduced in 1869, back when it was called Wyoming Territory.
    Téa Obreht, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • In the videos heard Monday, the rapper also called for liberation in Congo, Sudan and America.
    Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2026
  • If the story of women’s liberation is often told as one long unlacing of the corset, an early salvo came from the French barricades.
    Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Enfranchisement.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enfranchisement. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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