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
-
In 2022, an eighty-year-old Pakistani American woman, Zahida Aman, and two of her sons were found guilty of forcing a woman from Pakistan into domestic servitude at their home in Virginia.—
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
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Let’s go down memory lane and recall that the 13th Amendment is abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude.—
Ann Marie Luft,
The Orlando Sentinel,
14 May 2026
Noun
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More than 40 percent of captive Africans brought to what is now the United States entered through the port, where they were sold into slavery at auction.—
Tessa Solomon,
ARTnews.com,
11 June 2026
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During the War, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, delivered what is regarded as the greatest speech in American History, the Gettysburg Address, and championed the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
11 June 2026
Noun
-
South Africa and the Netherlands share a history of colonialism, enslavement, and apartheid.—
Caterina De Biasio,
Vogue,
20 Nov. 2025
-
These Indigenous communities have consciously chosen to retreat deeper into the jungle because of past traumatic encounters with outsiders - including disease, massacres and enslavement.—
NPR,
NPR,
16 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam, Wood of hornbeam.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Nov. 2025
-
The shirt features dropped shoulder seams, a back yoke and single-button cuffs.—
Karla Rodriguez,
Footwear News,
19 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The two had met in March through a website used for escort and stripping services, according to a court affidavit, and investigators alleged Dale paid Rylaarsdam more than $11,000 during the course of several weeks to talk to him and perform acts of bondage at his home.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
10 June 2026
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Weil suggests that the peoples of America melded (or failed to meld) within a cauldron of suffering, their collective history a saga of bondage and dispossession.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
4 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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