Persecution

//ˌpɝsəˈkjuʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of persecuting, especially a specific group of people; an instance of persecution. countable, uncountable

    "Many apartheid perpetrators escaped prosecution for their persecution of black Africans and political dissidents."

  2. 2
    the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abuseafflictionaggravationannoyancebad newsbedevilment

Example

More examples

"Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion."

Etymology

Equivalent to persecute + -ion. From Middle English persecucioun, from Old French persecucion, from Ecclesiastical Latin persecūtio (“persecution; chase, pursuit”), from Latin persequor (“follow up, pursue”), from per- (“through”) + sequor (“follow”). Displaced native Old English ēhtnes.

Related phrases

persecution complexunfair treatment

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