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estrangement

US/ɪsˈtɹeɪnd͡ʒmənt/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,846 of 15,258leans written

Estrangement is the state of having drifted out of contact. Family estrangement, a long estrangement, end the estrangement.

It is usually gradual rather than declared, which is what makes it different from a quarrel — nobody announces it and both sides can be waiting for the other to move. It is far commoner in families than people assume, because it is rarely talked about. Note that the word comes from strange, meaning made a stranger.

Definitions of estrangement

  1. 1nounestrangementThe state of having drifted out of contact.C1

    “After years of estrangement, the brothers met again at their mother's hospital bed.”

estrangement is a separation.

Where it comes from

Old French estrangement comes from estranger, to treat as a stranger, from Latin extraneus, foreign. Strange and extraneous come from the same outsideness.

  1. Old French

    estrangement

  2. English, today

    estrangement

Old French estrangement. by surface analysis, en + estrange + ment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Moods & Relationships

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estrangement in the wild

  • The child's estrangement may manifest itself as fear, disrespect or hostility toward the distant parent, and may extend to additional relatives or parties.

    Parental alienation

  • Critics note that alienating behaviors are common in high-conflict family situations such as child custody proceedings, but that the estrangement of a child from a parent remains rare.

    Parental alienation

  • Reconciliation is the end of the estrangement, caused by original sin, between God and humanity.

    Reconciliation (theology)

  • Self-estrangement is the idea conceived by Karl Marx in Marx's theory of alienation and Melvin Seeman in his five logically distinct psychological states that encompasses alienation.

    Self-estrangement

  • Self-estrangement is when a person feels alienated from others and society as a whole.

    Self-estrangement

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.