apartheid
/əˈpɑːtheɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.61 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any similar policy of racial segregation or separation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To impose a policy of segregation of groups of people, especially one based on race.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "She don't care about the rest at all / She's got a system they call apartheid / It keeps a brother in a subjection"
- "The premise of apartheid was that whites were superior to Africans, Coloureds and Indians, and the function of it was to entrench white supremacy forever."
- "The reality, however, is a disquieting and entirely white town, littered with old apartheid flags and monuments to the architects of segregation."
- "The 1973 Apartheid Convention conferred universal jurisdiction to the state signatories to prosecute those who commit apartheid."
- "When the doors of a business are open to the public, they must be open to all regardless of race if apartheid is not to become engrained in our public […] ."
- "Jim Crow miscegenation laws enforced apartheid in marriage."
Etymology
Etymology tree Middle French a partbor. Dutch apart Proto-Indo-European *keyt-der. Proto-Germanic *haiduzder. Proto-West Germanic *-haidu Old Dutch -heit Middle Dutch -heit Dutch -heid Dutch apartheid Afrikaans apartheidbor. English apartheid Borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid (literally “separateness, apartness”) (1929 in a South African socio-political context), from Afrikaans apart (“separate”) + suffix -heid, cognate of English -hood.