serfdom

noun

Definition of serfdomnext
as in peonage

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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 serfdom Kollwitz’ life also coincided with the final days of aristocratic feudalism and serfdom in Germany and the nation’s economic transition to Industrialism. — Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025 Their desire for freedom was at the same time a denunciation of serfdom. — Michael Bruening, The Conversation, 25 Feb. 2025 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
  1. peonage
  2. servitude
  3. slavery
  4. enslavement
  5. yoke
  6. bondage
  7. servility
Noun
  • In some cases, preexisting latifundia were modernized and adapted to the needs of export commodity production, frequently on the basis of outright slavery or any number of coercive arrangements like debt peonage and sharecropping.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
  • 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
Definition of peonage
Noun
  • For decades the Q’eqchi’ of Pinares were dispossessed by landowners and forced into servitude; then came repression and civil war.
    — Lys Arango, Vogue, 8 Nov. 2026
  • Fortunately, the Shōwa era drew to a close in 1975 before Ghidorah was forced into servitude for a fourth time.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 8 Nov. 2026
Definition of servitude
Noun
  • This was not a surprise; Mexico’s Constitution banned slavery, and so, too, did the California state Constitution.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2026
  • America's greatness is the fight to erase the long-standing consequences of slavery and Jim Crow and segregation.
    — Eric Henderson, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026
Definition of slavery
Noun
  • Strother was born free in Missouri in 1843 to parents who had purchased their freedom from enslavement a few years before.
    — Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 3 Nov. 2026
  • 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
Definition of enslavement
Noun
  • America's greatness is in the union struggle on a shop floor to push off the yoke of greed.
    — Eric Henderson, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026
  • The Roadster features a steer-by-wire yoke that electronically transmits steering inputs.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of yoke
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
  • Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals, though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping .
    — Ann Manov, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
Definition of servility

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serf
serfdom
serfdoms
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Cite this Entry

“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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