sanctions

US/sæŋkʃənz/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,706 of 15,258leans written

Sanctions are penalties imposed on a country to change its behaviour. Impose sanctions, lift the sanctions, economic sanctions.

Whether they work is genuinely disputed: broad ones tend to hurt ordinary people more than governments, which is why targeted sanctions on named individuals and firms have largely replaced them. The word is odd, because to sanction as a verb means to approve — the two senses come from the same Latin for making holy.

Definitions of sanctions

1nounsanctionsPenalties imposed on a country to change its behaviour.B2+
“The United Nations imposed sanctions on the country after it tested a nuclear weapon.”

sanctions is penalties.

Practised in Politics & Society

Practise this word

sanctions in the wild

Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals.
Economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior through disruption in economic exchange.
Economic sanctions
United States government sanctions are financial and trade restrictions imposed against individuals, entities, and jurisdictions whose actions contradict U.S. foreign policy or national security goals.
United States government sanctions
Financial sanctions are primarily administered by the U.S.
United States government sanctions
Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the United States has imposed a series of economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran.
United States sanctions against Iran

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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.

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