oppression

UK/əˈpɹɛʃən/US/əˈpɹɛʃən/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,950 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: oppressions

Oppression is cruel and unjust use of power over people. Political oppression, live under oppression, resist oppression.

It is systematic rather than occasional, which is what separates it from cruelty: oppression is built into how a society or an institution works. The word also names a physical feeling, an oppression in the chest, from the same idea of weight pressing down.

Definitions of oppression

1nounoppressionCruel and unjust use of power over people.C1
“For centuries the people suffered oppression under a cruel king.”

oppression is a use of power.

Where it comes from

Latin oppressio comes from opprimere, to press against — ob, against, plus premere, to press.

Latin
oppressiō — a pressing down, violence, oppression
Old French
oppression
Middle English
oppression
English, today
oppression

From Middle English oppression, from Old French oppression, from Latin oppressiō (“a pressing down, violence, oppression”), from opprimō; see oppress.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

oppression in the wild

Triple oppression, also called double jeopardy, Jane Crow, or triple exploitation, is a theory developed by black socialists in the United States, such as Claudia Jones.
Triple oppression
There are many scholars who have attempted to define oppression, usually by the types of harm suffered by those who are persecuted.
Oppression
Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.
Socialist feminism
In feminist theory, kyriarchy ( KY-ree-arr-kee) is a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression, and submission.
Kyriarchy

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.

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