repressive
Americanadjective
adjective
-
acting to control, suppress, or restrain
-
subjecting people, a society, etc, to a state of subjugation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of repressive
1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin repressīvus < Latin repress ( us ) ( see repress) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Repressive things keep people from doing or saying what they want. Repressive controls on the press don't allow journalists to freely report the news. It's almost always a government, or a political or social system, that acts in a repressive way. When police officers don't let citizens videotape arrests, or a society doesn't allow girls to attend school, it's repressive. Someone growing up in a repressive family might feel cautious about saying or doing the wrong things. The adjective repressive comes from the Latin root repressus, "held back or curbed," and also "checked or restrained."
Vocabulary lists containing repressive
Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam
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Persepolis
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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.
Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade mayor, said her Venezuelan constituents—Miami has the largest Venezuelan exile community in the U.S.—fear returning to a country where the same repressive regime remains in power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
She reminisces on a childhood growing up in a repressive household during the 1960s, when second-wave feminism and the women’s liberation movement were just starting to achieve legitimacy.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2026
The Southeast Asian nation of 100 million is both an economic success story, boasting eight percent growth last year, and a repressive one-party state that often jails its critics.
From Barron's ● Mar. 14, 2026
E2EE has been hailed by privacy experts as the best way to protect conversations from hackers, corporations and even repressive authorities trying to snoop on users.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2026
The raid cast a shadow over my last day in Cape Town, for it signaled the first move in the state’s new and even more repressive strategy.
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.
