PEONAGE Synonyms: 29 Similar and Opposite Words

peonage

noun

Definition of peonage

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

Noun

In 1381, England’s working class grabbed their pitchforks and rose against tyrannical landlords, extortionate taxes, and the stranglehold of serfdom.

— Alessandra Schade, Vanity Fair, 28 Oct. 2026
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

Definition of serfdom

Noun

White militias destroyed their homes, torched their food supplies, and slaughtered them outright so routinely that a secondary economy of kidnappers sprang up to sell the survivors, children and adults alike, into servitude.

— Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
But there's a certain kind of person who wants a person's back broken, bent over, in servitude.

— Kate Berlant, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of servitude

Noun

Pressure for Britain — along with the United States, Portugal, Spain and others who profited from slavery — to pay reparations has increased in recent years as Caribbean and African nations united behind the issue.

— ABC News, ABC News, 28 Oct. 2026
The king is expected to call slavery an atrocity that stains British history, but Britain’s government opposes reparations and says an apology is not on the agenda.

— Danica Kirka, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of slavery

Noun

The king’s Caribbean visit is an occasion to recognize the full story of Britain’s trafficking and enslavement of millions of Africans across the Atlantic – and the Crown’s direct culpability.

— Brooke N. Newman, The Conversation, 29 Oct. 2026
The former Atlanta mayor and onetime White House advisor to Democratic President Biden is trying to do it in a Deep South state where her lineage extends back to antebellum enslavement.

— Bill Barrow, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of enslavement

Noun

It was used in the 1820 Missouri Compromise to establish the limits of human bondage in the still adolescent United States and became synonymous with the fundamental divisions that exploded into the Civil War four decades later.

— ABC News, ABC News, 29 Oct. 2026
This kind of cross-pollination—bondage wear combined with eighteenth-century pastoral—will surely inspire students at the neighboring London College of Fashion.

— Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of bondage

Noun

The Roadster features a steer-by-wire yoke that electronically transmits steering inputs.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 Oct. 2026
Utilizing advanced digital steer-by-wire technology, this rectangular yoke replaces a mechanical steering column completely with precise electronic actuators.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of yoke

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“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 4 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of peonage

noun

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