encroachment
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of encroachment
1425–75; late Middle English encrochement < Anglo-French. See encroach, -ment
Explanation
An encroachment is something that intrudes and has the power to influence whatever it encounters. Some might consider text messaging to be an encroachment of impersonal technology on true, heartfelt interactions. Encroachment carries the sense of something slowly creeping into something else's space, either literally or figuratively. An encroachment can be of the physical variety, such as the encroachment of new development into a beautiful coastal area. Encroachment typically has a slightly a negative meaning, hinting at something that intrudes on something and then spoils it in some way.
Vocabulary lists containing encroachment
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Federalist Papers, No. 51 by James Madison
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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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.
Encroachment by players into the box when the penalty is taken will only be penalised if it has an impact.
From BBC • Aug. 15, 2024
Encroachment on their land by farmers and industry has reduced the pandas’ space while cutting them off from other populations with which to breed.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 24, 2022
Wallace Stevens wrote, “She dreams a little, and she feels the dark/ Encroachment of that old catastrophe,/ As a calm darkens among water-lights.”
From Slate • Apr. 10, 2015
Encroachment on airspace at general aviation airports is not a new problem, nor is the rapid growth that has swallowed up the communities surrounding small, semirural airparks across the United States.
From Washington Post • Feb. 28, 2015
Austrian Encroachment: the Pragmatic Sanction.—The immediate effect of the termination of the Turkish wars was to enhance yet further the despotism of the Hapsburgs in Hungary.
From The Governments of Europe by Ogg, Frederic Austin
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.
