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To emancipate someone (including oneself) is to free them from restraint, control, or the power of another, and especially to free them from bondage or enslavement. It follows that the noun emancipation refers to the act or practice of emancipating. The Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, for example, ordered that enslaved people living in the Confederate states be released from the bonds of ownership and made free people. It took more than two years for news of the proclamation to reach the enslaved communities in the distant state of Texas. The arrival of the news on June 19 (of 1865) is now celebrated as a national holiday—Juneteenth or Emancipation Day.
Examples of emancipation in a Sentence
Daniel Rodgers, Vogue, 28 Dec. 2025
Believe me, this concept of child emancipation… I was intrigued.
—Literary Hub, 18 Dec. 2025
In America and parts of Europe, Jews experienced emancipation and economic mobilization and sought ways to integrate into their local national communities.
—Joshua Shanes, The Conversation, 11 Dec. 2025
The formerly enslaved took the promise of emancipation to create an admirable lifestyle of excellence through the rearing of horses.
—James Edward Mills, Outside, 25 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for emancipation
Cite this Entry
“Emancipation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emancipation. Accessed 1 Jan. 2026.
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emancipation
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