as in tyrants
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
the dictatorship had scarcely been overthrown when the formerly oppressed suddenly abandoned their democratic ideals and became the oppressors
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Recent Examples of oppressors
Repressive policies will eventually create uprising against the oppressors.
—
Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
The film focuses on their heated debate, as some wish to fight their oppressors while others argue for a calculated escape.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Dec. 2025
This clause had been included to mitigate white citizens’ fears that if armed, Blacks would turn the weapons on their oppressors.
—Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025
Natalie Portman stars as Evey, a young working-class woman rescued from the secret police by a masked freedom fighter known only as V (Hugo Weaving), who is leading a plot to take down the oppressors in dramatic fashion.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2025
There were only the oppressors and the oppressed.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2025
Bad actors are counting on us to tear each other apart—to fall for the narcissism of small differences, to turn on our allies instead of our oppressors.
—Andrew Weinstein, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Movie lovers tend to think of producers as dictators of formulas, oppressors of originality, the enemies of art, but that just reflects the unfortunate history of studio filmmaking in Hollywood and elsewhere.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2025
The poem presents the Trojans, and the future Romans of Virgil’s own time, as both the underdogs and the oppressors, both the migrants and the colonizers, both the wretched refugees and the imperial overlords.
—Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025
Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
The film focuses on their heated debate, as some wish to fight their oppressors while others argue for a calculated escape.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Dec. 2025
This clause had been included to mitigate white citizens’ fears that if armed, Blacks would turn the weapons on their oppressors.
—Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025
Natalie Portman stars as Evey, a young working-class woman rescued from the secret police by a masked freedom fighter known only as V (Hugo Weaving), who is leading a plot to take down the oppressors in dramatic fashion.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2025
There were only the oppressors and the oppressed.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2025
Bad actors are counting on us to tear each other apart—to fall for the narcissism of small differences, to turn on our allies instead of our oppressors.
—Andrew Weinstein, Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Movie lovers tend to think of producers as dictators of formulas, oppressors of originality, the enemies of art, but that just reflects the unfortunate history of studio filmmaking in Hollywood and elsewhere.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2025
The poem presents the Trojans, and the future Romans of Virgil’s own time, as both the underdogs and the oppressors, both the migrants and the colonizers, both the wretched refugees and the imperial overlords.
—Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for oppressors
Noun
-
Those historians were impressed by how much personal force the old tyrants could generate.—
David Brooks,
Mercury News,
24 Jan. 2026
-
The world is full of bad actors—cheats, liars, tyrants, sickos—who are, ultimately, mere human beings; at least, this was how rationality would have it.—
Joshua Rothman,
New Yorker,
23 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
With a bottomless well of ideas, relentless encouragement, and a grin that only seems to widen by the season, the Wichita, Kansas, native runs TV’s most prolific reality competition series as the most benevolent of dictators.—
David Canfield,
Vanity Fair,
20 Jan. 2026
-
Based in Boston, the international corporation networked with dictators and local officials in Central America, many Caribbean islands and parts of South America to acquire immense estates for railroads and banana plantations.—
Aaron Coy Moulton,
The Conversation,
15 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Oppressors.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oppressors. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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