serfs

noun

plural of serf
as in slaves
a person in the past who belonged to a low social class and who lived and worked on land owned by another person Medieval serfs who tended land owned by a lord.

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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 serfs Nowadays there is less merriment, sunk as Moscow is in a combination of Putin stagnation, the Ukraine war, and the techno-feudalism that is making serfs of all of us in a world owned by billionaires pumping propaganda through the black boxes in the palm of our hands. — Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfs
  1. slaves
  2. servants
Noun
  • The idea of animals as slaves of their instincts or mindless automatons evaporates.
    — J. B. MacKinnon, Harpers Magazine, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Like horses, people held as slaves were generally treated by property law as things, not persons.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of slaves
Noun
  • Egyptologists have long debated whether the earliest pharaohs of the First Dynasty were buried with various servants and officials to serve them in the afterlife—a form of human sacrifice.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 5 Oct. 2026
  • This is the kind of show where an opulent tea party is dramatized not just by many different plates of fancy pastries, fancy wreaths and lots of furniture, but by having all that stuff carted in by a dozen or so butlers, maids and other servants.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of servants

Browse Nearby Words

serfdoms
serfs
sergeant
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Cite this Entry

“Serfs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfs. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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