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.

• (Received Pronunciation, strictly) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑːtheɪt/, /əˈpɑːthaɪt/
• (US, strictly) enPR: ə-pärtʹhāt, ə-pärtʹhīt, IPA^(key): /əˈpɑɹtheɪt/, /əˈpɑɹthaɪt/

  Audio (US):

  (file)

  Audio (US):

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• Note: the h is very often not pronounced because of the difficulty of following /t/ with /h/, but the sequence is not pronounced as the digraph th (/ð/, /θ/).
• (US, laxly) enPR: ə-pärʹtīd, IPA^(key): /əˈpɑɹ.taɪd/

apartheid (countable and uncountable, plural apartheids)

1. (South Africa, historical) The policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1990.

   Synonym: plural relations

   • 1988, Eddy Grant, “Gimme Hope Jo'anna”:

     She don't care about the rest at all / She's got a system they call apartheid / It keeps a brother in a subjection

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, pages 127-128:

     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.

2. (by extension) 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.

   • 1963, Justice William O. Douglas, concurring, Lombard v. Louisiana (373 U.S. 267):

     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 […] .

   • 2006 March 3, Leslie Feinberg, “Civil rights leaders were gay-baited, red-baited”, in Workers World‎^[1]:

     Jim Crow miscegenation laws enforced apartheid in marriage.

3. (by extension) A policy or situation of segregation based on some specified attribute.
   • 2008, Peter Hewitt, Kenya Cowboy: A Police Officer's Account of the Mau Mau Emergency, →ISBN, page 64:

     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 gaily among themselves.

   • 2009, Moorthy Muthuswamy, Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War, →ISBN, page 120:

     In these annual reports, the religious apartheid practices in India are not mentioned at all.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:apartheid.

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

1. To impose a policy of segregation of groups of people, especially one based on race.
   • 1986, Stanlake John Thompson Samkange, On Trial for that U.D.I.: A Novel, page 79:

     Yes, apartheiding the apartheiders, is what the rest of the world is doing.

   • 1989, Instauration - Volumes 15-16, page 36:

     Whatever the reason the blacks have for "apartheiding" Boston, whites should be all for it.

   • 2003, Mayur K. Lakhani, A Celebration of General Practice, →ISBN, page 183:

     The most deadly of all ghosts are wandering over Britain and medicine, apartheiding people into superiors and nonentities.

   • 2009, Shirley R. Steinberg, Diversity and Multiculturalism: A Reader, →ISBN, page 151:

     Speaking of the resulting apartheiding of British Columbia, Cole Harris observed, "racism was built into the landscape of settlement."

   • 2011, Timothy J. Stanley, Contesting White Supremacy, →ISBN, page 64:

     By 1922, the apartheiding of British Columbia was cemented into a public and private English-language discourse that took for granted how and where one racialized body was placed in relation to another, and in turn how each related to the state system.

• antiapartheid

• hit parade

From Dutch apartheid, equivalent to apart (“separate, apart”) +‎ -heid (“-ness, -hood”).

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [ɐˈpartɦɛit]

apartheid (uncountable)

1. apartheid

• IPA^(key): /ˌaːˈpɑrt.ɦɛi̯t/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: apart‧heid

From apart (“separate, apart”) +‎ -heid (“-hood”).

apartheid f (plural apartheden, diminutive apartheidje n)

1. the state of being separate; separateness
2. a characteristic that sets something or someone apart

• Afrikaans: apartheid

Borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid, from Dutch apartheid.

apartheid f (uncountable)

1. the policy of racial segregation used in South Africa from 1948 to 1990; apartheid
2. (by extension) any similar policy of racial segregation
   • 2007 December 13, “Prins Claus en de NCO”, in Andere Tijden: VPRO:

     In januari 1972 komt een subsidieaanvraag binnen van het Angola Comité voor een boycotactie van koffie afkomstig uit Angola. Het land is in die tijd een provincie van Portugal, dat hardnekkig weigert de voormalige kolonie op te geven. De actie is tegen kolonialisme, rassendiscriminatie en apartheid.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• apartheidsbeleid
• apartheidspolitiek

• hitparade

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑpɑrthɑi̯d/, [ˈɑ̝pɑ̝r.t̪hɑ̝i̯d]
• Rhymes: -ɑpɑrthɑid

apartheid

1. apartheid

• “apartheid”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

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

• IPA^(key): /a.paʁ.tɛd/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: a‧par‧theid

apartheid m (plural apartheid)

1. (history) apartheid (racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1990)
2. apartheid (any policy of racial segregation)

• ségrégation
• ségrégationnisme
• séparation

• hit-parade

Unadapted borrowing from Afrikaans apartheid (“South Africa policy of racial segregation”, literally “separateness, apartness”), from Dutch apartheid.

• IPA^(key): [aparˈteɪt̚]
• Hyphenation: apar‧théid

aparthéid (plural apartheid-apartheid)

1. (historical) apartheid: the policy of racial segregation used by South Africa from 1948 to 1990

• aparteid

• “apartheid” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

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

• IPA^(key): /a.parˈtajd/, (careful style) /a.parˈtɛjd/, (careful style) /a.parˈtejd/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ajd, (careful style) -ɛjd, (careful style) -ejd

apartheid m (invariable)

1. (history) apartheid (racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1990)
2. apartheid (any policy of racial segregation)

• apartheid in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

From Afrikaans apartheid.

apartheid m (definite singular apartheiden, uncountable)

1. apartheid

• “apartheid” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “apartheid” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Afrikaans apartheid.

apartheid m (definite singular apartheiden, uncountable)

1. apartheid

• “apartheid” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Unadapted borrowing from Afrikaans apartheid.

• IPA^(key): /aˈpart.xajt/, /aˈpart.xɛjt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -artxajt, -artxɛjt
• Syllabification: a‧part‧heid

apartheid m inan

1. (historical) apartheid (policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1990)

• apartheid in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• apartheid in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• apartheid in PWN's encyclopedia

Unadapted borrowing from English apartheid, from Afrikaans apartheid, from Dutch apartheid.

• Hyphenation: apar‧theid

apartheid m (countable and uncountable, plural apartheids)

1. (historical, uncountable) apartheid (policy of racial segregation in South Africa)
2. (countable) apartheid (any policy of racial segregation)

• “apartheid”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “apartheid”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “apartheid”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2025
• “apartheid”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “apartheid”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025

Borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid.

apartheid n (uncountable)

1. apartheid

• IPA^(key): [ˈapartɦeit]

apartheid m inan (relational adjective apartheidový)

1. apartheid

• “apartheid”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

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

• IPA^(key): /apaɾˈxeid/ [a.paɾˈxei̯ð̞]
• Rhymes: -eid
• Syllabification: a‧part‧heid

apartheid m (plural apartheids or apartheid)

1. (history) apartheid (racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1990)
2. apartheid (any policy of racial segregation)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “apartheid”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
• “apartheid”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Doubts] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN

apartheid c

1. (South africa, historical) apartheid
2. (by extension) apartheid (more generally)

• apartheid in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• apartheid in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)