as in slavery
the state of being an enslaved person
the Fugitive Slave Act had the effect of returning enslaved people who had made it to freedom in the North to a brutal life of servitude in the South
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Recent Examples of servitude
Violence was the means by which slaveholders were able to get fellow human beings to submit to servitude, and Texans were willing to use it liberally.
—
David Wright Faladé, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025
One viral fake news story, based on no evidence at all, said that Will Smith had sold one of his children into Combs’s servitude.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 3 June 2025
Instead, students play various games, gambling huge sums of money (provided by their parents) to rise in St. Dominic’s social hierarchy and reign over the house pets, students who have fallen into massive debt who are subjected to servitude.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 May 2025
At the academy, students bet huge sums of money and even their freedom for a chance to rise up the strict social hierarchy, where the richest rule as gods, while those with the highest debts are relegated to servitude.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 21 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for servitude
David Wright Faladé, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025
One viral fake news story, based on no evidence at all, said that Will Smith had sold one of his children into Combs’s servitude.
—Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 3 June 2025
Instead, students play various games, gambling huge sums of money (provided by their parents) to rise in St. Dominic’s social hierarchy and reign over the house pets, students who have fallen into massive debt who are subjected to servitude.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 May 2025
At the academy, students bet huge sums of money and even their freedom for a chance to rise up the strict social hierarchy, where the richest rule as gods, while those with the highest debts are relegated to servitude.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 21 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for servitude
Recent Examples of Synonyms for servitude
slavery
Noun
-
In 2022, Musk was accused of corporate slavery, perpetuating work abuse and job burnout.—
Bryan Robinson,
Forbes.com,
4 Aug. 2025
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While many narratives about Black Americans from this time period focus on southern sharecroppers and other cultural offshoots of slavery, The Gilded Age offers a peek inside another facet of Black life.—
Evan Nicole Brown,
Architectural Digest,
25 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Servitude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/servitude. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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