Vocabulary
Repressive
English and Urdu gloss, synonyms and antonyms, and example usage from our editorial sentence cache where available.
English meaning
(especially of a social or political system) inhibiting or restraining personal freedom.
Example sentences (from Dawn)
Sentences are selected from stored editorial text where your search word appears. If none appear yet, run the admin sentence generator for fuller coverage.
- It has now all but neutralised the main opposition party, PTI through a combination of electoral chicanery, legal manoeuvres, crackdowns, arrests, repressive measures, and, of course, by confining Imran Khan to jail.
- Moreover, weak or missing institutional guardrails allow it to turn repressive, exclusionary and blind to people`s legitimate needs and demands.In the end, it generates public disaffection, anger and even alienation from state institutions.
- It is their blind quest for power and wealth that has grievously injured democracy and left the poor masses at the mercy of a repressive, violent and extortionist dispensation.
- Repressive laws must be amended or repealed, political freedoms restored, parallel power structures dismantled and security agencies held to account.
- Thus, it is clear that the emerging politico-legal order is going to make the rapacious elites all the more extractive and repressive, and yet, immune to accountability, with the hapless people being the easy prey.
Synonyms
oppressive, authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical, tyrannous, dictatorial, fascist
Antonyms
democratic, liberal
Curator example
“a repressive regime”
More vocabulary to explore
About this vocabulary section.
These entries support close reading of Dawn editorials and opinion pieces: short definitions,
Urdu equivalents where we have them, word relations, and—when generated—real lines from the editorial archive
so you can see tone and usage.
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- No. Word pages are open to everyone. You can read meanings in English and Urdu, synonyms and antonyms, and example sentences without creating an account.
- Where do the example sentences come from?
- When available, example sentences are drawn from cached matches in our Dawn editorial corpus so you can see how a word is used in real newsroom-style prose.
- How is this different from a dictionary?
- This section is curated for students preparing for competitive exams and editorial reading. Entries are compact, often include Urdu glosses, and are paired with in-context lines from editorials when we have them.
