What does "disenfranchisement" mean?

Explicit or implicit revocation of, or failure to grant, the right to vote, to a person or group of people.

What is a synonym for "disenfranchisement"?

Common synonyms include: absolutism, bondage, captivity, control, domination, feudalism.

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Explicit or implicit revocation of, or failure to grant, the right to vote, to a person or group of people. countable, uncountable
2
the act of withdrawing certification or terminating a franchise wordnet

"King led the campaign to end racial segregation and electoral disenfranchisement in the USA using very similar methods to Gandhi in India."

From disenfranchise + -ment.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.