Word.ws English Dictionary

Oppression Olympics

Oppression Olympics proper noun: competition between marginalized groups to be considered the most subject to oppression.

Proper noun

the Oppression Olympics

  1. (derogatory, slang) Competition between marginalized groups to be considered the most subject to oppression.
    • [ELIZABETH] MARTÍNEZ: […] But the general idea is no competition of hierarchies should prevail. No “Oppression Olympics”!1993 May 12, Angela Y. Davis, Elizabeth Martínez, “Coalition Building Among People of Color”, in María Ochoa, Teresia Teaiwa, editors, Enunciating Our Terms: Women of Color in Collaboration and...

Origin of Oppression Olympics

First attested in 1993, see quotation below, but one source describes it as being in use "several years" before 1995. Attributions include unidentified students and Elizabeth V. Spelman.

Questions about Oppression Olympics

What does Oppression Olympics mean?
Oppression Olympics means competition between marginalized groups to be considered the most subject to oppression.
What part of speech is Oppression Olympics?
Oppression Olympics is a proper noun.

Words near Oppression Olympics in the dictionary

  1. oppresseth
  2. oppressible
  3. oppressing
  4. oppressingly
  5. oppression
  6. Oppression Olympics
  7. oppressional
  8. oppressionism
  9. oppressionist
  10. oppressionists
  11. oppressions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Oppression Olympics (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.

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