as in peonage
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Recent Examples of serfdom
The peasants’ goal was to overturn serfdom and create a fairer society grounded on the Christian Bible.
—
Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
That book, Caliban and the Witch, traces the emergence of witch hunts throughout medieval Western Europe amid the transition from serfdom to proto-capitalism.
—Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024
As the Big Three continue to drive down the road to serfdom, car production will continue in the United States.
—The Editors, National Review, 18 Sep. 2023
Russian officers still treated their peasant soldiers as little better than serfs (and serfdom would not be abolished in Russia for another 50 years).
—Antony Beevor, Foreign Affairs, 29 Dec. 2022
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025
That book, Caliban and the Witch, traces the emergence of witch hunts throughout medieval Western Europe amid the transition from serfdom to proto-capitalism.
—Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024
As the Big Three continue to drive down the road to serfdom, car production will continue in the United States.
—The Editors, National Review, 18 Sep. 2023
Russian officers still treated their peasant soldiers as little better than serfs (and serfdom would not be abolished in Russia for another 50 years).
—Antony Beevor, Foreign Affairs, 29 Dec. 2022
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfdom
Noun
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Roughly 12% were of African descent — newly unshackled, technically free and already being legally recaptured under other names: peonage, vagrancy laws, convict leasing.—
Jack Hill,
Baltimore Sun,
17 May 2025
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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
Noun
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Like the Lenten journey, the onset of Passover commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian servitude, the onset of a 40-year march homeward to the land of promise.—
Michael Pfleger,
Chicago Tribune,
29 Mar. 2026
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The Ten Commandments are about God having taken the initiative to rescue the Hebrew people from forced servitude.—
James Coffin,
The Orlando Sentinel,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Most of the long montage took issue with what the band presented as America’s historic misdeeds, from the era of slavery up through America’s missile strikes in Iran.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
19 Apr. 2026
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Kellerman recalled that most of these direct victims were sold into slavery by other Africans and were not captured by Europeans.—
Nicole Winfield,
Chicago Tribune,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In 1530 the Spanish bishop Bartolome de las Casas urged the Spanish Cortes to ban the enslavement of Indigenous persons.—
Bishop Peter A. Rosazza,
Hartford Courant,
17 Apr. 2026
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Jewish believers have had to come to terms with the inarguable truth that the story of the Hebrew enslavement, flight, and deliverance from Egypt is almost entirely mythical.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
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No one’s going to be stuck in a hand-over-hand situation like in a Tesla, with its horrid implementation of a yoke.—
Joel Feder,
The Drive,
2 Apr. 2026
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John holds on to the yoke, looking straight ahead, as alarms and red lights blare on the control panel.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
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There was even a Children’s Crusade in 1212 that turned out badly when some 30,000 children ended up dead or in bondage.—
Peter Lucas,
Boston Herald,
18 Apr. 2026
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That power was built up over centuries partly to compensate for the humiliation, subjugation, and grievous bondage of Russia’s history, real and imagined.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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