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While often associated with questionable behavior by the royals of eras past, usurp retains its usefulness today. It’s still typically applied when someone takes power without authority or the right to do so, though the power taken is not necessarily political and the question of right and authority may be subject to debate; a city council usurping a mayor’s power is a more traditional use of the word, but one product can be said to be usurping market share from another, and one athlete may claim to have usurped GOAT status. The usurpation can even be sartorial: Amanda Mull, writing for The Atlantic, noted how tracksuits in the 1980s “usurped much of cotton sweatpants’ momentum toward legitimate coolness.” Usurp comes from Latin: usurpare, meaning “to take possession of without a legal claim,” was formed by combining usu (a form of usus, meaning “use,” which also led to the words usually and use) and rapere (“to seize”).
Synonyms
Examples of usurp in a Sentence
John Yoo and John Shu, Newsweek, 24 Jan. 2025
By using these authorities to address a longstanding policy problem, Trump is usurping the role that the Constitution assigns to Congress.
—Elizabeth Goitein, TIME, 23 Jan. 2025
Mega social media platforms usually suffer a long death, shedding relevance and users as they’re slowly usurped by a new innovative generation of upstarts, like Facebook muscling out Myspace.
—Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 19 Jan. 2025
Season 2 was a major improvement, which was then usurped by season 3, which brought in new uniforms, new sets, and Michael Piller to head up the writing team.
—Chris Snellgrove, EW.com, 16 Jan. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near usurp
Cite this Entry
“Usurp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/usurp. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.
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Legal Definition
usurp
verbLatin usurpare to take possession of without a strict legal claim, from usus use + rapere to seize
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