ESTRANGEMENT Synonyms: 43 Similar and Opposite Words

estrangement

noun

as in alienation

the loss of friendship or affection a silly quarrel that eventually resulted in a complete and lasting estrangement between the onetime friends

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of estrangement The Beckhams, who sold their crash pad in One Museum Tower in downtown Miami, but maintain a spec house in Miami Beach, are said to be heartbroken about the estrangement. —

Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 13 May 2026 For some, the reason behind such estrangements might seem clear to both parties. —

Madeline Holcombe, CNN Money, 10 May 2026 Out of the shadow of Jesse’s big personality, Michelle is opening up this season, first with her heartbreaking estrangement from her father and now with her grieving process for her mother. —

Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 7 May 2026 Accusations of emotional abuse are a common reason for family estrangement, said Lucy Blake, a psychologist and family estrangement researcher from the United Kingdom. —

Madeline Mitchell, USA Today, 7 May 2026 But what these books have in common—apart from the telling fact that both are narrated by female characters—is a powerful estrangement from the structures of ordinary life. —

James Wood, New Yorker, 4 May 2026 Americans are in an era of friend firing and date ghosting and familial estrangement, of easy and individualized AI companionship, of low social trust, not only in faceless institutions but in other human beings. —

Faith Hill, The Atlantic, 1 May 2026 In Conversation Jenny Bartoy recommends memoirs that explore family estrangement by Harriet Brown, Stephanie Foo, Nick Flynn and more. —

Literary Hub, 28 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for estrangement

Noun

And this sense of mutual alienation, of being neither here nor there, that Franny and Elliott live with suggests that the political is no longer seen from a potentially abstract place and finally bleeds into realm of the personal.

— Lé Baltar, IndieWire, 17 May 2026
The case spurred scrutiny of Utah's family court system and reunification practices and sparked debates about parental alienation and how allegations of child abuse are investigated.

— Janelle Griffith, PEOPLE, 13 May 2026