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
  • Two hundred years after emancipation, New York should choose to remember.
    Tunisia Morrison, New York Daily News, 5 July 2026
  • Everything from the division of the Peaches and the Plums to Shamea’s tagline this season is a secret cry from Shamea to Porsha, begging for attention under the guise of her own emancipation.
    Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 29 June 2026
Noun
  • The women’s suffrage movement began in earnest in the United States with the first ever women’s rights convention held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York.
    USA Today, USA Today, 7 July 2026
  • Starting with the campaign for universal white male suffrage soon after the American Revolution, marginalized and exploited people fought for equal rights.
    Brian DeLay, Mercury News, 4 July 2026
Noun
  • Like their counterparts in the founding generation, most 19th century reformers had their own prejudices and their own ideas about whose liberation mattered most.
    Brian DeLay, Mercury News, 4 July 2026
  • Fifty years ago, the hijackers at Entebbe also cloaked themselves in the language of liberation.
    Anne Neuberger, The Atlantic, 3 July 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Enfranchisement.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enfranchisement. Accessed 14 Jul. 2026.

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