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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

usurp.

To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/juˈsɝp/General-American/juːˈzɜːp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).

  2. To take the place of someone or something else; to supplant.

  3. To make use of.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English usurpen, from Old French usurper, from Latin ūsūrpō.

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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.