usurp
/juˈsɝp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.70 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).
verb
To take the place of someone or something else; to supplant.
Example Sentences
- "[S]o he dies, But soon revives, Death over him no power Shall long usurp […]"
- "[…] usurped or took any name or title of honor or dignity. In many cases it happened that persons who had usurped arms without authority, entered their names […]"
- "In this case, you have usurped the copyright owner's reasonably expected right to make a derivative work[.]"
- "Most Republicans in Congress are complying as Mr. Trump usurps the power of the national legislature, as laid out in Article 1 of the Constitution."
- "But if now / You ſhould (as cruell fathers do) proclame / Your right, and Tyrant like uſurp the glory / Of my peculiar honours, not deriv'd / From ſucceſſary, but purchas'd with my bloud, / Then I muſt ſtand firſt Champion for my ſelfe, / Againſt all interpoſers."
- "Jones answered all his questions with much civility, though he never remembered to have seen the petty-fogger before; and though he concluded, from the outward appearance and behaviour of the man, that he usurped a freedom with his betters, to which he was by no means intitled."
Etymology
From Middle English usurpen, from Old French usurper, from Latin ūsūrpō.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /juˈsɝp/
- British English: /juːˈzɜːp/