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
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
Success, as seen by Mr. Dior, implies sticking to one’s ideals for big problems such as location of the new house, and attention to small details, as well as the capacity for personality-splitting to cope with the responsibilities and servitudes of fame.
—Wwd Staff, WWD, 10 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for 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
Success, as seen by Mr. Dior, implies sticking to one’s ideals for big problems such as location of the new house, and attention to small details, as well as the capacity for personality-splitting to cope with the responsibilities and servitudes of fame.
—Wwd Staff, WWD, 10 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for servitude
Recent Examples of Synonyms for servitude
slavery
Noun
-
Born into slavery in 1850, Goode was freed at the end of the Civil War in 1865 and moved to Chicago.—
Kori Rumore,
Chicago Tribune,
14 July 2025
-
David Bond offered a class called The Atlantic World, much of which involved the history of slavery and the slave trade.—
Brooke Allen,
New Yorker,
12 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Servitude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/servitude. Accessed 26 Jul. 2025.
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