Word.ws English Dictionary

servitute

servitute is the obsolete form of servitude.

Meaning of servitude

Noun

servitude (countable and uncountable, plural servitudes)

  1. The state of being a slave; slavery; being forced to work for others or do their bidding without one's consent or against one's will, either in perpetuity or for a period of time over which one has little or no control.
    • In spite of the importance of this route it remained until a few years ago very insecure. Overhung almost its entire length by the inaccessible fastnesses of Lololand, the passing caravans dared journey only with convoy, and even then were frequently overwhelmed by raiders from the hills, who...1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China
    Synonyms:
    bondage, subjugation
  2. A qualified beneficial interest severed or fragmented from the ownership of an inferior property and attached to a superior property or to some person other than the owner; the most common form is an easement.
  3. (dated) Service rendered in the army or navy.
  4. (obsolete) Servants collectively.
  5. (archaic) The act of serving (food or drink, etc.); service.
    • The usual routine of confections and pastry follows, after which a galore of fruits of all kinds, with a chassè of excellent Mocha, the immediate servitude of which, after good dining, is, I think, universally acknowledged to be a great exhiliration^([sic]).1857, Journal of Australasia, volume 2, page 38

Forms of servitute

pluralservitutes

Origin of servitute

From Middle English servitute, from Latin servitus.

Questions about servitute

What is servitute the obsolete form of?
Servitute is the obsolete form of servitude.

Words near servitute in the dictionary

  1. servitrixes
  2. servitude
  3. servitudes
  4. servitudinal
  5. serviture
  6. servitute
  7. servitutes
  8. servlet
  9. servlets
  10. servo
  11. servo drive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: servitute (page history and authors); servitude (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: “servitute.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/servitute. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.