emancipation

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The act of freeing a person or group from slavery or from legal or social control.

   Grammar: Uncountable and usually with of: the emancipation of the slaves.

   Patterns

   • the emancipation of someone
   • emancipation from something

   The emancipation of enslaved people changed the nation forever.

   Many fought for the emancipation of women in the nineteenth century.

   The law brought emancipation from centuries of strict control.

2. 2noununcountablelegal

   A legal process by which a minor becomes independent of parental control.

   Grammar: Uncountable and a legal term: a petition for emancipation.

   Patterns

   • emancipation of a minor
   • petition for emancipation

   The teenager applied for legal emancipation at sixteen.

   Emancipation lets a young person sign contracts on their own.

   The court granted emancipation after hearing the case.

3. 3noununcountablefigurative

   Freedom from limits or restrictions of any kind, such as old ideas or habits.

   Grammar: Uncountable and figurative: intellectual emancipation.

   Patterns

   • emancipation from something

   Education was her path to emancipation from poverty.

   He wrote about the emancipation of art from tradition.

   The new tools offered emancipation from boring routine.

Common combinations

the emancipation of women

Her book traces the emancipation of women in Europe.

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863.

economic emancipation

Economic emancipation gave workers more choices.

fight for emancipation

They continued to fight for emancipation.

emancipation from

The movement sought emancipation from colonial rule.

Synonyms and how they differ

liberation

Liberation is often used for freeing people from occupation or oppression and is a stronger, more emotional word.

freedom

Freedom is the general state of being free, while emancipation is the act of being set free.

release

Release is the plain word for letting someone go, with no sense of social or legal change.

deliverance

Deliverance suggests being rescued from danger or evil and is often religious.

Opposites

Word family

emancipate verb

to set free from legal or social restriction

emancipated adjective

freed from restrictions

emancipator noun

a person who sets others free

emancipatory adjective

tending to free people from restriction

Commonly confused: emancipation or manipulation?

Practice

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