proscription

UK/pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/US/pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: proscriptions

A proscription is an official forbidding of something. Issue a proscription.

In Rome it meant publishing a list of names, and being on it meant being killed lawfully. Proscription is easy to confuse with prescription, which orders rather than forbids.

Definitions of proscription

1nounproscriptionAn official forbidding of something.C2
“The proscription of the party lasted nine years.”

proscription is a ban.

Where it comes from

Latin proscriptio, from proscribere, to publish in writing, from scribere, to write.

Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōscrīptiō
Middle English
proscripcion
English, today
proscription

Built from

scrībō · Latin — write

From Middle English proscripcion, from Latin prōscrīptiō, from prōscrībō (originally "publish in writing"), from prō- and scrībō (“write”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

proscription in the wild

The proscription of Palestine Action by the UK government in 2025.
Proscription
The ancient Roman civil law concept of proscription, and the status of homo sacer conveyed by proscription may also be similar.
Hostis humani generis
Ohio, 495 U.S. 103, the Ferber proscription was extended by the Court to the mere possession of child pornography.
Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996
The reasons behind the proscription remain a mystery.
Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut
Before its proscription it was led by Anjem Choudary.
Islam4UK

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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.

Related words

the scrībō family

describe prescription

proscription — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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