apartheid

/əˈpɑːtheɪt/

apartheid noun: the policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.

Image: Guinnog, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

apartheid (countable and uncountable, plural apartheids)

(South Africa, historical) The policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.
- She don't care about the rest at all / She's got a system they call apartheid / It keeps a brother in a subjection1988, Eddy Grant, “Gimme Hope Jo'anna”
- The premise of apartheid was that whites were superior to Africans, Coloureds and Indians, and the function of it was to entrench white supremacy forever.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, pages 127-128
Synonyms:

plural relations
(broadly) Any similar policy of racial segregation or separation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.
- The 1973 Apartheid Convention conferred universal jurisdiction to the state signatories to prosecute those who commit apartheid.
- When the doors of a business are open to the public, they must be open to all regardless of race if apartheid is not to become engrained in our public […] .1963, Justice William O. Douglas, concurring, Lombard v. Louisiana (373 U.S. 267)
(broadly) A policy or situation of segregation based on some specified attribute.
- Fifteen minutes drive to the Brown Trout was guaranteed to satisfy my appetite because there, as with other clubs and hotel bars, a form of sex apartheid was practised. The males assembled in the region of the bar and the opposite gender either sat discreetly detached or strayed outside to gossip...2008, Peter Hewitt, Kenya Cowboy: A Police Officer's Account of the Mau Mau Emergency, →ISBN, page 64
- In these annual reports, the religious apartheid practices in India are not mentioned at all.2009, Moorthy Muthuswamy, Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War, →ISBN, page 120

Verb

apartheid (third-person singular simple present apartheids, present participle apartheiding, simple past and past participle apartheided)

(transitive) To impose a policy of segregation of groups of people, especially one based on race.
- Yes, apartheiding the apartheiders, is what the rest of the world is doing.1986, Stanlake John Thompson Samkange, On Trial for that U.D.I.: A Novel, page 79
- Whatever the reason the blacks have for "apartheiding" Boston, whites should be all for it.1989, Instauration - Volumes 15-16, page 36

apartheid meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Gujarati

apartheid in Tamil

இனஒதுக்கீட்டுக் கொள்கை, இன ஒதுக்கம், தென்ஆப்பிரிக்க இன ஒதுக்கீட்டுக்கொள்கை

apartheid in Urdu

نسلی امتیاز, نسلوں کی علیحدگی, نسلی عصبیت

apartheid in Kannada

ವರ್ಣದ್ವೇಷ, ಜನಾಂಗದ್ವೇಷ, ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕತಾನೀತಿ, ವರ್ಣಭೇದನೀತಿ, ದೂರವಿಡುವಿಕೆ, ಬೇರ್ಪಡಿಕೆ

apartheid in Gujarati

apartheid; segregation: રંગભેદ raṅgbhed

More languagesFewer languages

apartheid in Arabic: أَپَارْتْهِيد ʔapārthīd, فَصْلٌ عُنْصُرِيّ faṣlun ʕunṣuriyy, فَصْل عُنْصُرِيّ faṣl ʕunṣuriyy
apartheid in Malay: aparteid, pengasingan kaum, pengasingan, pemisahan
apartheid in Myanmar: အသားအရောင်ခွဲခြားမှု a.sa:a.raunghkwai:hkra:hmu.

Examples of apartheid in a sentence

The reality, however, is a disquieting and entirely white town, littered with old apartheid flags and monuments to the architects of segregation.2019 October 24, Dennis Webster, “'An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming”, in The Guardian, archived from the...
Jim Crow miscegenation laws enforced apartheid in marriage.2006 March 3, Leslie Feinberg, “Civil rights leaders were gay-baited, red-baited”, in Workers World:
Fifteen minutes drive to the Brown Trout was guaranteed to satisfy my appetite because there, as with other clubs and hotel bars, a form of sex apartheid was practised.2008, Peter Hewitt, Kenya Cowboy: A Police Officer's Account of the Mau Mau Emergency, →ISBN, page 64:
The most deadly of all ghosts are wandering over Britain and medicine, apartheiding people into superiors and nonentities.2003, Mayur K. Lakhani, A Celebration of General Practice, →ISBN, page 183:

All 31 example sentences with apartheid

Synonyms of apartheid

plural relations

Antonyms

antiapartheid

Forms of apartheid

Noun
plural	apartheids
Verb
third-person singular present	apartheids
present participle	apartheiding
past participle	apartheided
past	apartheided

Origin of apartheid

Borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid (literally “separateness, apartness”) (1929 in a South African socio-political context), from Afrikaans apart (“separate”) + suffix -heid, cognate of English -hood.

Phrases with apartheid

Questions about apartheid

What does apartheid mean?: Apartheid means the policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.
What is apartheid in Tamil?: Apartheid in Tamil is இனஒதுக்கீட்டுக் கொள்கை, இன ஒதுக்கம், தென்ஆப்பிரிக்க இன ஒதுக்கீட்டுக்கொள்கை. See Apartheid meaning in Tamil.
How do you use apartheid in a sentence?: The reality, however, is a disquieting and entirely white town, littered with old apartheid flags and monuments to the architects of segregation.
What part of speech is apartheid?: Apartheid can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce apartheid?: Apartheid is pronounced /əˈpɑːtheɪt/.
What is the plural of apartheid?: The plural of apartheid is apartheids.

Words near apartheid in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: apartheid (page history and authors); apartheid (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apartheid (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apartheid (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); રંગભેદ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Apartheid2.ogg.

Cite this entry: “apartheid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/apartheid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.