Meaning & use
women's suffrage
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The right of women to vote in elections, which was won in most countries during the twentieth century.
Grammar: Uncountable, no article: women's suffrage was won in 1920 in the United States.
Patterns
- women's suffrage in something
- win women's suffrage
Women's suffrage was granted in New Zealand in 1893.
Many countries debated women's suffrage for decades.
The law that introduced women's suffrage changed the electorate.
noununcountableformal
The campaign or movement to win the vote for women.
Grammar: Often used as a modifier: women's suffrage campaign.
Patterns
- campaign for women's suffrage
- support women's suffrage
She devoted her life to women's suffrage.
Marches for women's suffrage drew huge crowds.
The museum has an exhibit on the women's suffrage movement.
Common combinations
- women's suffrage movement
- The women's suffrage movement organized marches and petitions.
- campaign for women's suffrage
- She joined the campaign for women's suffrage as a teenager.
- support women's suffrage
- Several politicians began to support women's suffrage.
- win women's suffrage
- New Zealand was the first country to win women's suffrage.
- opponents of women's suffrage
- Opponents of women's suffrage argued that it would harm families.
Synonyms and how they differ
- the women's vote
- This is plainer and refers to the actual vote, while suffrage also names the movement.
- voting rights
- Voting rights covers all groups and does not point only to women.
- enfranchisement
- Enfranchisement is a formal word for granting the vote to any group.
- franchise
- Franchise in this sense is an old formal word for the right to vote, used less often today.
Opposites
Word family
- suffrage noun
- the right to vote
- suffragette noun
- a woman who campaigned for the vote, especially in Britain
- suffragist noun
- a person who campaigns for the vote
- enfranchise verb
- to give the right to vote
Commonly confused: women's suffrage or suffering?
women's suffrage vs suffering
Suffering means pain or hardship; suffrage is the right to vote and is pronounced differently.
Practice
The campaign for women's ____ led to women gaining the right to vote.
Choose one answer.
Suffrage means the right to vote. Suffering and suffix are different words, and surfeit means too much of something.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “women's suffrage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.