Meaning & use
liberation
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Meanings
noununcountable
The act of setting a person, group or place free from captivity, occupation or harsh control.
Grammar: Often followed by of: the liberation of the prisoners.
Patterns
- the liberation of someone
- liberation from something
Crowds filled the streets to celebrate the liberation of the city.
The film follows a family from occupation to liberation.
Her liberation from the debt felt like a heavy coat coming off.
noununcountable
A movement or struggle to win equal rights and freedom from social restrictions.
Grammar: Often appears in a name or compound: women's liberation, national liberation.
Patterns
- the liberation of women
- a liberation movement
The book traces the history of women's liberation in the twentieth century.
Several liberation movements gained strength after the war.
He wrote a thesis on theologies of liberation.
noununcountablefigurative
A feeling of relief and freedom after getting away from a burden or limit.
Grammar: Used figuratively for personal feelings: a sense of liberation.
Patterns
- a sense of liberation
- feel liberation
Quitting the job gave him a sudden sense of liberation.
There is real liberation in admitting you were wrong.
Common combinations
- the liberation of a city
- The liberation of the city took three weeks.
- national liberation
- The poet became a voice for national liberation.
- women's liberation
- Her grandmother marched for women's liberation.
- a sense of liberation
- Moving abroad gave her a sense of liberation.
- liberation movement
- The liberation movement used peaceful protest.
Synonyms and how they differ
- release
- Release is plainer and can describe any letting go, even from a short wait, whereas liberation implies freedom from serious control.
- emancipation
- Emancipation points to freedom from legal or social bondage, such as slavery, and is more formal.
- deliverance
- Deliverance has a religious or rescue flavor and stresses being saved from danger.
- freedom
- Freedom is the resulting state, while liberation is the act or process that leads to it.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: liberation or liberalization?
liberation vs liberalization
Liberalization means making laws or rules less strict, whereas liberation means setting someone or something free.
Practice
Soldiers entered the town and, after months of occupation, the ____ of its people began. Which word fits?
Choose one answer.
Liberation is the act of freeing people, so it fits the process beginning. Liberty is the state of being free, which would not fit the idea of something beginning with soldiers arriving.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “liberation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.