form of word: noun
Sentence from text: While racial oppression has remained constant, the shape of this discrimination mutates. By:— Ashley Howard, Smithsonian Magazine, "The Long, Painful History of Racial Unrest," 28 Aug. 2020
Definition :
: unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power
: something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power
a sense of being weighed down in body or mind : DEPRESSION
Synonyms: blue devils, blues, dejection, depression, desolation, despond, despondence, despondency, disconsolateness, dispiritedness, doldrums, dolefulness, downheartedness, dreariness, dumps, forlornness, gloom, gloominess, glumness, heartsickness, joylessness, melancholy, miserableness, mopes, mournfulness, sadness, sorrowfulness, unhappiness
Antonyms: bliss, blissfulness, ecstasy, elatedness, elation, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, exultation, felicity, gladness, gladsomeness, happiness, heaven, intoxication, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, jubilation, rapture, rapturousness
First known use: 14th century
History and Emology: Middle English oppressioun, borrowed from Anglo-French oppression, borrowed from Latin oppressiōn-, oppressiō "action of pressing on or overpowering," from oppres- or *oppret-, variant stem of opprimere "to press on, stifle, overpower" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action