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
Nowadays there is less merriment, sunk as Moscow is in a combination of Putin stagnation, the Ukraine war, and the techno-feudalism that is making serfs of all of us in a world owned by billionaires pumping propaganda through the black boxes in the palm of our hands.
—
Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfs
Noun
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Rastus, Westinghouse’s Great Depression-era robot, was the most overtly racialized of these corporate robot slaves.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
21 Apr. 2026
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Some of the first slaves to arrive in Louisiana were sent from Angola, according to historians.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Thank you to the public servants wrestling with impossible decisions.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
10 Apr. 2026
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The latter is less of a mother to Agnes than Rosa (Kira Guloien), one of the household’s many Marthas (put-upon domestic servants).—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Serfs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfs. Accessed 1 May. 2026.
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