Meaning & use
apartheid
Last updated
A policy or system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, especially the system that existed in South Africa until 1994.
See it in a sentence
The museum's exhibit documented daily life under apartheid.
Historians compare various systems of racial segregation to apartheid, though the term originated in South Africa.
A note on using this word
Capitalized less consistently than most proper nouns because it has become a general term for any codified system of racial separation, not only the South African one.
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