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peonage

noun

Definition of peonagenext
as in serfdom

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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 peonage Many Black Americans fled this violent system of peonage and terror in the Great Migration, moving to cities such as Gary and Pittsburgh for a better life. — John E. Jackson Sr, Chicago Tribune, 16 June 2026 Ryan Coogler didn’t want to hide anymore The film conveys two forms of peonage prominent in the 1930s South—labor arrangements not far removed from slavery. — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 2 May 2025 The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude. — Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024 Convict leasing, also called peonage, juxtaposed the infrastructure of the Old English debtor’s prison with the barbarism of chattel slavery to bolster American capitalism. — Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024 See All Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
  1. serfdom
  2. servitude
  3. slavery
  4. enslavement
  5. bondage
  6. yoke
Noun
  • Or that Franciscan fathers — members of an order dedicated to lives of poverty and humility — forced tribes to give up their foods, customs and religion in the name of Christ, rewarding them with serfdom.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2026
  • Datebook Picks If Firs is a vestige of serfdom, Joseph O’Malley as eternal graduate student Pétya forecasts the coming revolution.
    — Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Feb. 2026
Definition of serfdom
Noun
  • Fertile women known as Handmaids are forced into reproductive servitude.
    — Will Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Countless stories of Zeke’s kindness, bravery and commitment to a life of servitude took up the nearly eight-hour hearing.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026
Definition of servitude
Noun
  • Cora, the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped from West Africa and sold into slavery, flees her captor’s plantation, plunging her into the book’s alternate steampunk reality where she is pursued by the merciless slave catcher Ridgeway.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 16 Sep. 2026
  • There were none available when someone should have wiped from existence a hype video that used the painful history of slavery and the Civil War as college football rivalry fodder.
    — Joe Rexrode, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of slavery
Noun
  • Stealing America dramatically expands this history by tracing Indigenous enslavement and land dispossession throughout the full range of American history.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Some were written by people who experienced enslavement, others were dictated, and some were preserved through oral traditions.
    — Reginald David, Hartford Courant, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of enslavement
Noun
  • The idea called for Axl and Erin to be seen in various scenes involving bondage.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Conahan, now 72, acknowledged having a bondage fetish in court but has always denied killing anyone.
    — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of bondage
Noun
  • Suffering from severe financial inequality and oppressed by the yoke of dictators and oligarchs, the people rise up and storm the seat of government.
    — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Price upon request Louis Vuitton Pharrell’s autumn outing features several eye-catching knits, including this volcanic take on a Nordic yoke sweater, which deviates from more-traditional styles with an irregular, almost pixilated gradient pattern.
    — Jon Roth, Robb Report, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of yoke

Browse Nearby Words

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peonage
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Cite this Entry

“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 23 Sep. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on peonage

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about peonage

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