Meaning & use
dispossession
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The act of taking property, land or possessions away from someone, often by force, law or unfair means.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the dispossession of farmers.
Patterns
- the dispossession of someone
- dispossession of something
The dispossession of farmers left thousands homeless.
Historians study the dispossession of native peoples from their land.
The law was criticized as a tool for dispossession.
noununcountableformal
The state of having lost your property, home or belongings.
Grammar: Used for a condition and often with social or historical topics.
Patterns
- a sense of dispossession
Many families experienced dispossession after the flood.
Poverty and dispossession pushed them to move to the city.
The novel explores a deep sense of dispossession.
Common combinations
- forced dispossession
- Forced dispossession displaced many communities.
- land dispossession
- The report examines land dispossession in the colonial era.
- history of dispossession
- The region has a long history of dispossession.
- dispossession of land
- The dispossession of land caused hardship.
- sense of dispossession
- He felt a sense of dispossession after leaving his home.
Synonyms and how they differ
- eviction
- Eviction is removal from a home or property, often by a landlord, while dispossession is broader and may include land or belongings.
- confiscation
- Confiscation is officially taking something away as a penalty, whereas dispossession can be unjust or violent.
- seizure
- Seizure is a sudden taking by force or authority, but dispossession often describes a larger process.
- expropriation
- Expropriation is formal, usually by a government and often legal, while dispossession may be unlawful.
Opposites
Word family
- dispossess verb
- to take property away from someone
- dispossessed adjective
- deprived of home or property
- possession noun
- something owned or the state of owning
- possess verb
- to own or have
Commonly confused: dispossession or disposition? dispossession or disposal?
dispossession vs disposition
Disposition means a person's natural temperament or arrangement of things, and it is unrelated to losing property.
dispossession vs disposal
Disposal means getting rid of something, but dispossession is about having your things taken away.
Practice
The museum exhibit explains the ___ of the villagers, who were forced off their land.
Choose one answer.
Dispossession is taking away land or property from people. Disposal means getting rid of things, and it does not fit forced removal of people.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dispossession”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.