apartheid

American  

[uh-pahr-tahyt, -teyt] / əˈpɑr taɪt, -teɪt /

noun

1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid former policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population.

2. any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc.

---

apartheid British  

/ əˈpɑːthaɪt, -heɪt /

noun

1. (in South Africa) the official government policy of racial segregation; officially renounced in 1992

---

apartheid Cultural  

1. The racist policy (see racism) of South Africa that long denied blacks and other nonwhites civic, social, and economic equality with whites. It was dismantled during the 1990s. (See Nelson Mandela.)

---

Usage

What is Apartheid? Apartheid refers to the system of racist segregation and political and economic oppression enacted and upheld by white people in South Africa to deny Black and other nonwhite people equal rights.Apartheid became the official policy of South Africa in 1948 (though racist segregation policies had been employed before that). It was officially in place until the early 1990s, when it was begun to be dismantled after decades of resistance from Black and other nonwhite South Africans—notably Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko, among many others—and sanctions and pressure from the international community.Apartheid, spelled with a capital A, is most commonly used to refer specifically to South African Apartheid. The lowercase form, apartheid, is used in a more general way to refer to any system that segregates people based on certain characteristics, such as skin color, ethnicity, or caste.

Other Word Forms

• antiapartheid noun

Etymology

Origin of apartheid

First recorded in 1945–50; from Afrikaans apart apart + -heid -hood

Example Sentences

He became a prominent advocate for ending apartheid in South Africa, and in the 1990s served as presidential special envoy to Africa for Bill Clinton.

From Barron's • Mar. 6, 2026

South Africa’s nuclear dismantlement during its transition from apartheid to democracy in the early 1990s offers a positive counterexample.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 1, 2026

Prior to 1994 and the end of South Africa's racist system of apartheid, the province now known as KwaZulu-Natal was split into two.

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2026

His supporters saw him as a pan-Africanist, who supported causes such as the campaign against the racist system of apartheid in South Africa.

From BBC • Jan. 8, 2026

I grew up in South Africa during apartheid, which was awkward because I was raised in a mixed family, with me being the mixed one in the family.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

Related Words

• discrimination
• racism