as in tyrant
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
the dictatorship had scarcely been overthrown when the formerly oppressed suddenly abandoned their democratic ideals and became the oppressors
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of oppressor
Your structure sorts the whole world into two boxes, oppressor and oppressed.
—
Joyce Kamanitz,
Hartford Courant,
25 June 2026
An America where justice brings down oppressors and lifts up the ordinary.
—
Chicago Tribune,
21 June 2026
What if ensuring your own existence meant repeatedly traveling back to an era where your ancestors were enslaved, forcing you to rescue them from their horrifying oppressor?
—
Janey Wetzel,
PEOPLE,
19 June 2026
And did the advocates of this collective pedagogy imagine their children rising to heights of power, only to view the darker nations of the world through the same violent lens as their oppressors?
—
Ta-Nehisi Coates,
Vanity Fair,
15 June 2026
To Be Whole,' which teaches that the United States was founded on 'white supremacy' and categorizes individuals as 'oppressors' and 'oppressed' based only on their skin color, not their individual decisions and actions.
—
Gabriela Vidal,
CBS News,
9 June 2026
Going to a former colony as a white male Belgian filmmaker, going there as the former oppressor in a way, or having that heritage of the oppressor.
—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
2 June 2026
Meanwhile, Annie as played by Tess Barthélémy copes in two ways with being surrounded by caricaturish oppressors.
—
Sophie Monks Kaufman,
IndieWire,
18 May 2026
Cuba needs to be rid of its oppressors once and for all, as quickly as possible.
—
Carlos Eire,
Time,
23 Apr. 2026
Joyce Kamanitz,
Hartford Courant,
25 June 2026
An America where justice brings down oppressors and lifts up the ordinary.
—
Chicago Tribune,
21 June 2026
What if ensuring your own existence meant repeatedly traveling back to an era where your ancestors were enslaved, forcing you to rescue them from their horrifying oppressor?
—
Janey Wetzel,
PEOPLE,
19 June 2026
And did the advocates of this collective pedagogy imagine their children rising to heights of power, only to view the darker nations of the world through the same violent lens as their oppressors?
—
Ta-Nehisi Coates,
Vanity Fair,
15 June 2026
To Be Whole,' which teaches that the United States was founded on 'white supremacy' and categorizes individuals as 'oppressors' and 'oppressed' based only on their skin color, not their individual decisions and actions.
—
Gabriela Vidal,
CBS News,
9 June 2026
Going to a former colony as a white male Belgian filmmaker, going there as the former oppressor in a way, or having that heritage of the oppressor.
—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
2 June 2026
Meanwhile, Annie as played by Tess Barthélémy copes in two ways with being surrounded by caricaturish oppressors.
—
Sophie Monks Kaufman,
IndieWire,
18 May 2026
Cuba needs to be rid of its oppressors once and for all, as quickly as possible.
—
Carlos Eire,
Time,
23 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for oppressor
Noun
-
Because, after all, as in all of Haber’s novels, the point is not really what is happening in the world but what is happening in the mind—in this case the mind of the pettiest of tyrants.
-
Joseph Stalin—the Soviet Union’s supreme ruler from 1929 to 1953 and a murderous tyrant legendary for drinking friends and enemies under the table—was a closet oenophile, the e-mail explained.
Noun
-
Its flint-hearted ferocity was a return to what the dynasts of the past—warlords, kings, and dictators—would find routine.
-
And following the ousting of longtime dictator Bashir Al-Assad, Syria continues to have armed conflict and sectarian violence.
Cite this Entry
“Oppressor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oppressor. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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