Synonyms of servitude

servitude

noun

ˈsər-və-ˌtüd 

as in slavery

the state of being an enslaved person

the Fugitive Slave Act had the effect of returning enslaved people who had made it to freedom in the North to a brutal life of servitude in the South

Synonyms & Similar Words

• slavery
• enslavement
• bondage
• thraldom
• servility
• yoke
• thralldom
• thrall
• captivity
• serfdom
• peonage
• subjugation
• subjection
• imprisonment
• dependance
• dependence
• incarceration
• enchainment

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• freedom
• liberty
• liberation
• emancipation
• enfranchisement
• independence
• manumission
• autonomy
• sovereignty
• self-government
• sovranty

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of servitude

Unlike the definition of indenture servitude, in which someone works for a single employer without pay, visa holders may change employers and are paid. —David Faris, Newsweek, 28 Dec. 2024

The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude. —Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024

Similar constitutional amendments have been adopted in recent years in states including Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont, removing exceptions that allowed slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2024

California is one of eight states that still allow involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment. —Anabel Sosa, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2024