Repressive
adj ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Serving to repress or suppress; oppressive
"Human law is indeed repressive, but repressive on moral principles comprehensively applied to the whole community, and commanding the approval of the moral sense of the governed"
- 1 restrictive of action wordnet
Example
More examples"Sweatshop labor, rainforest destruction, global warming, displacement of indigenous communities, air and water pollution, eradication of wildlife on farmland as “pests”, the violent overthrow of popularly elected governments to maintain puppet dictators compliant to big business interests, open-pit strip mining, oil drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, union busting, child slavery, and payoffs to repressive regimes are just some of the many impacts of the seemingly innocuous consumer products we consume every day."
Etymology
From repress + -ive.
More for "repressive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.