serfdom
Americannoun
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the condition of being a serf in a position of servitude, required to render services to a lord.
He lived in serfdom until 1831 when, at the age of 30, he escaped.
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the condition or population of serfs taken as a whole.
Her thesis analyzes the phenomenon of serfdom and the manner in which it changed between 1772 and 1848.
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servitude of any kind.
Technology, in the absence of scientific guidance, is a Pied Piper leading us into industrial serfdom.
Etymology
Origin of serfdom
Vocabulary lists containing serfdom
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ms. Bellows is the author of “American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025
But just 15 years later, the same advocates became obsessed with Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, advocating free-market capitalism to combat the rise of totalitarianism.
From Slate • Dec. 5, 2022
Serfdom, relatively secure but contingent on the generosity of the families, is the middle class of the Lazarus universe.
From Salon • Jan. 6, 2017
The Road to Serfdom became the path to power.
From The Guardian • Apr. 15, 2016
Do you think that they, with their Battles, Famine, Black Death and Serfdom, were less enlightened than we are, with our Wars, Blockade, Influenza and Conscription?
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
