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repression

UK/ɹəˈpɹɛʃən/US/ɹəˈpɹɛʃən/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,028 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: repressions

Repression is the holding down of people or of feelings by force. Political repression, brutal repression, emotional repression.

The political sense means a state acting against its own people, which is what separates it from war. In psychoanalysis, repression is pushing a memory out of conscious reach, and the theory holds that it does not stay down quietly.

Definitions of repression

  1. 1nounrepressionThe holding down of people or of feelings by force.B2+

    “Under the military government, the repression of students and journalists grew worse every year.”

repression is a suppressing.

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    repressus

  2. English

    repress

  3. English, today

    repression

Built from

  • reprimō · Latin — to repress

From repress + -ion. repress Ultimately from Latin repressus, the perfect passive participle of reprimō (“to repress”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

repression in the wild

  • More broadly, the term can be applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout the Russian Civil War.

    Red Terror

  • Political repression can also be reinforced by means outside of written policy, such as by public and private media ownership and by self-censorship within the public.

    Political repression

  • If political repression is not carried out with the approval of the state, a section of government may still be responsible.

    Political repression

  • Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution.

    Political repression in the Soviet Union

  • Polish jazz has a history that spans periods of both acceptance and political repression.

    Polish jazz

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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 reprimō family

repressionrepress

repression — used about once every 4,101 pages · #9,028 · point at the bar for the others