apartheid

American  

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

noun

• apartheids
  plural

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.

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apartheid British  

/ əˈpɑːthaɪt, -heɪt /

noun

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

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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.)

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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

Derived Forms

• antiapartheid
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• apartheids
  plural

Etymology

Origin of apartheid

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

Explanation

Apartheid was a racist political policy in South Africa demanding segregation of the nation's white and non-white populations. During South African apartheid, more than three million black citizens were forced to move from their homes to segregated neighborhoods. The law of apartheid came into being with the South African election in 1948. So it makes sense that the word's history goes back to that date, from the Afrikaans word for "separateness." It comes from the Dutch, with the "heid" part meaning "hood," for "apart-hood." The word denotes a policy that oppressed people based solely on their skin color. The system was formally ended in 1993.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

apartheid

However, Kolisi, South Africa's first black captain, also referenced 1976's Soweto Uprising - the student protests that were a turning point in the fight against apartheid, the state-backed racial segregation of South African society.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

They need the world’s help, the way pressure helped break South Africa’s apartheid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

Cowley Nel describes apartheid as a "terrible time" for South Africa, and says she had wanted equality for all.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

In the 1980s, global measures including a U.S. ban on investments and loans to the white-minority government in South Africa hurt the regime and helped force an end to apartheid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026

What they sought was not so much a radical restructuring of South African society as the removal of those features of apartheid that held back black initiative and enterprise.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

Related Words

• discrimination
• racism