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gulag.

Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡuːlɑɡ/Received-Pronunciation/-læɡ/Received-Pronunciation, sometimes/ɡuːˈlɑk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡuˌlɑɡ/General-American

  1. Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).

    historical

  2. A prison camp, especially one used to hold political prisoners.

    broadly

  3. A place where, or political system in which, people with dissident views are routinely oppressed.

    also · broadly · figuratively
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.

verb/ˈɡuːlɑɡ/Received-Pronunciation/-læɡ/Received-Pronunciation, sometimes/ɡuːˈlɑk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡuˌlɑɡ/General-American

  1. To compel (someone) into a forced labour camp or a similar place of confinement or exile.

    also · figuratively · informal · transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.