1
as in enslavement
the state of being an enslaved person
a child born into slavery
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in labor
very hard or unpleasant work
endured the slavery of working in the coal mines every day of his adult life
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of slavery
Inflation has made the monetary amounts seem absurdly small—less than $10 to get a dozen fugitives from Philadelphia to Elmira, New York, for instance, in July 1856—but these cash outlays were literally a matter of life and death, or the death-in-life of slavery.
—
Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 10 Jan. 2025
Flashback: Much of the present-day American Southwest and West used to be territory under New Spain and later Mexico until the U.S. invaded in 1846 to seek more land for slavery.
—Russell Contreras, Axios, 8 Jan. 2025
Just five years before his departure did the convention finally formally apologize for its history of defending slavery.
—Liam Adams, The Tennessean, 29 Dec. 2024
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha is imagined as a girl originally named Antoinette, raised in Jamaica on a fallow sugar plantation after the abolition of British slavery.
—Ilana Masad, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for slavery 
Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 10 Jan. 2025
Flashback: Much of the present-day American Southwest and West used to be territory under New Spain and later Mexico until the U.S. invaded in 1846 to seek more land for slavery.
—Russell Contreras, Axios, 8 Jan. 2025
Just five years before his departure did the convention finally formally apologize for its history of defending slavery.
—Liam Adams, The Tennessean, 29 Dec. 2024
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha is imagined as a girl originally named Antoinette, raised in Jamaica on a fallow sugar plantation after the abolition of British slavery.
—Ilana Masad, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for slavery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for slavery
Noun
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Optimizing Complex Workforce Scheduling Workforce challenges, including labor shortages and poor resource allocation, have become the new normal, with several industries particularly impacted, including manufacturing, retail, leisure and finance.—
Alan Baratz,
Forbes,
21 Jan. 2025
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Factories are operating at 81 percent of capacity, compared with prewar levels of less than 60 percent, and 73 percent of firms report labor shortages.—
Alexandra Prokopenko,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Jan. 2025
Noun
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The legislation also removes language authorizing slavery and involuntary servitude as possible criminal punishments.—
Kinsey Crowley,
USA TODAY,
1 Jan. 2025
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And taken alongside the failure of Prop. 6, which would have ended involuntary servitude in prisons, Prop. 36 was taken as a signal that Californians attitudes toward crime are changing.—
Annika Merrilees,
Sacramento Bee,
16 Jan. 2025
Noun
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But while the rain will likely aid firefighting efforts, the precipitation brings new risks.—
Denise Chow,
NBC News,
23 Jan. 2025
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But even if reformers find a way to reduce savings efforts without running afoul of the law, opinions are mixed whether the investment community will tolerate such a move.—
Keith M. Phaneuf,
Hartford Courant,
23 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Her foot literally steps forward atop a broken chain of human bondage.—
The New York Times,
New York Times,
16 Jan. 2025
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Hurston’s novel is therefore usually read as an allegory of Emancipation, the flight from Egypt as an escape from the bondage of slavery.—
Louis Menand,
The New Yorker,
13 Jan. 2025
Noun
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What can people do to associate physical exercise more with happiness than with drudgery?—
Rodger Dean Duncan,
Forbes,
16 Jan. 2025
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Others probably feel Dallas could have beaten or at least been more competitive against Golden State, or still remember the drudgery of the regular season’s first half.—
Tim Cato,
The Athletic,
24 July 2024
Noun
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Naama Levy, one of the four female IDF soldiers released from Hamas captivity on Saturday, is speaking out for the first time.—
Rachel Wolf,
Fox News,
28 Jan. 2025
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On their 477th — and last — day of captivity, the four young women, who had been captured in their pajamas, were paraded in soldiers' uniforms before standing on a stage at the head of the square.—
Willem Marx,
NPR,
25 Jan. 2025
Noun
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His innie, unaware of this grief, toils in Lumon’s enigmatic Macrodata Refinement department (MDR), disillusioned with the monotony, the secrecy and the repressiveness of Lumon’s operations.—
Bryan Alexander,
USA TODAY,
14 Jan. 2025
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Just Ask Xero is an AI co-pilot designed with the single purpose of reducing customer toil, or time spent on monotonous financial administration tasks.—
Jeffrey Hammond,
Forbes,
9 Dec. 2024
Noun
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An actor’s reputation can sometimes feel like a heavy yoke; in Gladiator II, Denzel tosses it off and has a blast, taking the audience with him.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
TIME,
22 Nov. 2024
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Inspired by Western heritage, its design features a distinctive yoke, a vertical chest pocket, and two lower side-entry flap pockets, providing both style and practicality.—
Chris Dorsey,
Forbes,
21 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near slavery
Cite this Entry
“Slavery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/slavery. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.
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