noun ·3 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of repressing; state of being repressed. countable, uncountable

   "History shows that when governments fear the truth and increase repression, their days are limited."

2. 2
   the act of repressing; control by holding down wordnet
3. 3
   The involuntary rejection from consciousness of painful or disagreeable ideas, memories, feelings, or impulses. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   (psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious wordnet
5. 5
   a state of forcible subjugation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

aloofnessarrestarrestationarrestmentbackwardnessbamboo curtain

Example

More examples

"From this point we go on to an even more detailed examination of the concept of repression."

Etymology

From repress + -ion.

Related phrases

financial repressiontransnational repression

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