CHATTEL Synonyms: 55 Similar and Opposite Words

chattel

noun

ˈcha-tᵊl

Definition of chattel

as in slave

a person who is considered the property of another person an amendment to end the keeping of humans as chattel

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in possession

chattels plural transportable items that one owns packed up all her chattels and moved to a new state

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of chattel Patriarchal cultures reduce women to economic dependence, treating them as a form of chattel to be traded among families. — Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025 The eventual ban on the international slave trade actually made Southern slaveholders wealthier by increasing the value of their human chattel. — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 15 May 2026 Before meeting Rael-Gálvez, Daria Celeste Landress had learned while researching her family history that three Indigenous ancestors had been listed in historical documents as chattel, alongside furniture, houses, and trees. — Geraldo Cadava, New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2026 There was no forgetting the notorious Confederate prison camps like Andersonville and Salisbury, the Confederate pogrom at Fort Pillow, and the fact that the South had seceded in the first place to perpetuate and expand an elite-serving economy based on human chattel. — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 5 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for chattel

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chattel

Noun

The Florida Advanced Courses and Test—or FACT, for short—is heavy on American exceptionalism, light on slave narratives.

— Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 2 July 2026
Preserving slave ownership, along with resisting political overreach from Mexico City, were principal reasons that the Mexican state of Texas fought to break free of Mexico.

— Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026

Definition of slave

Noun

There’s a lot of bad crowd work out there, just like there is bad anything else — fledgling or whatever rookie stuff.

— Deputy Entertainment, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026
There’s a bunch of new things across most of the 2026 range, mainly cosmetic, but also hardware and weight-saving stuff as well.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 6 July 2026