Meaning & use
slave
A person who is legally owned by another and forced to work without freedom or pay.
See it in a sentence
The museum exhibit documented the lives of enslaved people who worked on the plantation.
Historians study old ship records to trace the routes used to transport slaves across the Atlantic.
A note on using this word
Many historians now prefer "enslaved person" to "slave" because it emphasizes that slavery was imposed, not an identity.
Words with a similar meaning
bondsperson
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
free person
Another way to use it
2. verb
To work extremely hard, or to force someone to work in servitude.
She slaved over the report for three nights before it was finally finished.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “slave”, then compare your use with the examples above.
Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.