SERFDOM Synonyms: 29 Similar and Opposite Words

serfdom

noun

Definition of serfdom

as in peonage

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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

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

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

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

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

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“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of serfdom

noun

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