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Synonyms

expropriation

Cultural  

  1. The taking over of private property by a government, often without fair compensation but usually with a legal assertion that the government has a right to do so.

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.

In the expropriation, the Argentine state took over 51 percent of YPF, which at the time was partially controlled by the Spanish energy giant Repsol.

From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026

District Judge Loretta Preska, who determined that two YPF shareholders were owed compensation for the 2012 expropriation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

Its article quoted Alan Riley, an expert on global energy law at the Atlantic Council, who damned the proposal as “an expropriation document” and added, “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2025

South Africa has previously said that Trump has misunderstood the country's new land expropriation act.

From BBC • Mar. 7, 2025

Kropotkin wishes first of all a general expropriation, and then each person is to have what he likes.

From Anarchism A Criticism and History of the Anarchist Theory by Zenker, Ernst Viktor

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.