privation

[prahy-vey-shuhn]

noun

1. lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life.

   His life of privation began to affect his health.

   Synonyms: distress, need, want, deprivation

2. an instance of this.

3. the act of depriving.

4. the state of being deprived.

privation

/ praɪˈveɪʃən /

noun

1. loss or lack of the necessities of life, such as food and shelter

2. hardship resulting from this

3. the state of being deprived

4. obsolete,  logic the absence from an object of what ordinarily or naturally belongs to such objects

Word History and Origins

Origin of privation¹

1350–1400; Middle English (from Middle French privacion ) from Latin prīvātiōn- (stem of prīvātiō ) “a taking away.” See private, -ion

Word History and Origins

Origin of privation¹

C14: from Latin prīvātiō deprivation

Synonym Study

See hardship.

Example Sentences

And it could help a fledgling government to pay salaries, begin to rebuild, and address the growing discontent over the privations of daily life.

From BBC

Unable to deny the economic ruin Trump is inflicting on the nation, the Fox News spinsters have moved to reframing financial privation as a good thing, because it will supposedly restore Americans' lost masculinity.

From Salon

A week earlier, Israelis were horrified and enraged by the frail, near-skeletal condition of three freed Israeli men, and by emerging testimony that hostages had suffered privation and torture under their militant captors.

From Los Angeles Times

Rather, it was because he came to realize he wasn’t empathetic enough to class differences and the privations of others.

From Los Angeles Times

One senior nurse - in a message heard by the BBC - speaks in an exhausted voice of relentless privations allegedly imposed by the Israelis besieging Jabalia.

From BBC

Related Words

• hardship