as in slaves
a person in the past who belonged to a low social class and who lived and worked on land owned by another person
Medieval serfs who tended land owned by a lord.
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Recent Examples of serfs
Slaves, serfs, peasants, and wage workers mostly understood that what was being struck was a hammer blow on their behalf.
—
Jack Sheehan
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Jack Sheehan
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfs
Noun
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For their part, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere each worked hard to persuade Irishmen, Hessians, Indigenous people, and former slaves to defect to the patriot side.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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The film, written by Barbosa alongside Werner Salles, is set in 1695 and sees a family of slaves organize a rebellion to flee in search of the utopian Quilombo dos Palmares following a call from the spiritual helm.—
Rafa Sales Ross,
Variety,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Revenues for the third film managed to improve upon the prior entry in the series about the grand houses and the servants and elite who populate them.—
Rebecca Rubin,
Variety,
30 Oct. 2025
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The book is a product of an era when attributing credit to servants of any kind would not have been expected, but times have changed.—
Adrian Miller,
Southern Living,
28 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Serfs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfs. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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