oppression
Americannoun
-
oppression
plural
-
the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
- Synonyms:
- persecution, despotism, tyranny
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an act or instance of oppressing or subjecting to cruel or unjust impositions or restraints.
-
the state of being oppressed.
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the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.
noun
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the act of subjugating by cruelty, force, etc or the state of being subjugated in this way
-
the condition of being afflicted or tormented
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the condition of having something lying heavily on one's mind, imagination, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of oppression
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English oppressioun, from Middle French, from Latin oppressiōn-, stem of oppressiō “a pressing down,” equivalent to oppress(us) “pressed down” + -iō noun suffix; see oppress, -ion
Explanation
Oppression is when a person or group in a position of power controls the less powerful in cruel and unfair ways. Not cool. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Those words came from Frederick Douglass, a former slave who devoted his life to ending the oppression of black people at the hands of powerful white slaveowners. The Latin root means “pressed against,” and oppression feels like hands pressing your head, keeping you down. Oppression can be widespread throughout a culture, or felt by a single individual, like enduring the sun’s oppression on a hot summer day.
Vocabulary lists containing oppression
Figurative Language in King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr.
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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.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told reporters in May that his country remained opposed to high-level talks while "oppression is still taking place".
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
You have all these characters that are literally standing up to oppression and fascism, and those who are in power and they show an amount of corruption that you think only happens in books.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Instead, Lawrence presented the emperor with the city’s poor and maligned, insisting that he confront the oppression he had forced on them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Literature’s importance, we observe, is to liberate the imagination—to escape oppression.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
I was just becoming aware of the history of racial oppression in my own country, and saw the struggle in South Africa as purely racial.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
