emancipation
Americannoun
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the act of freeing or state of being freed; liberation
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informal freedom from inhibition and convention
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emancipation
First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin ēmancipātiōn-, stem of ēmancipātiō, from ēmancipāt(us) “freed from control” (past participle of ēmancipāre “to free from control”; see emancipate) + -iō -ion
Compare meaning
How does emancipation compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Emancipation is being set free from the control of someone or something. Your emancipation from your parents comes when you turn 18 and are legally considered an adult. The word appears most memorably in the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln's order of 1863 that freed enslaved people in the U.S. Emancipation can describe any kind of liberation: "If you're really chafing under the rigors of practicing for the upcoming game, you and your teammates can go on strike for emancipation from the grueling schedule your coach has decreed."
Vocabulary lists containing emancipation
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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American History I
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)
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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.
That same year, Russia's Manizha performed a song about the pressures faced by women and women's emancipation, which stirred controversy in her home country.
From Barron's • May 16, 2026
Edmond Albius devised the hand-pollination technique that made vanilla cultivation commercially viable; he died in poverty after emancipation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
The ad's originality lay in the fact it did not directly show off the product, but instead promised a new world of emancipation for consumers thanks to home computers.
From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026
Mr. Pinsker attaches much importance to that effort, noting that it emboldened military enforcement of emancipation and Congressional support for black recruitment.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
The subject of slavery was introduced because some of the counties, alarmed by the Nat Turner insurrection, had petitioned for the gradual emancipation of the slaves or for abolition of slavery.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
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.
