Home › Demographics & Urban Studies › Segregation & Redlining › disenfranchise

disenfranchise

dis-in-FRAN-chize /ˌdɪs.ɪnˈfræn.tʃaɪz/

verbC1GRESATUPSC

academicformalpolitical

To deprive someone of a legal right or privilege, especially the right to vote.

Focuses on stripping civil, legal, or political rights, leaving individuals without power in institutional systems.

The story behind the word. In medieval French, 'franc' meant free. To 'enfranchise' was to bestow freedom or privilege. Adding 'dis-' reverses that bestowal, removing civil freedom.

Word relationships

disempower: Disempower is broader and can be psychological or social, whereas disenfranchise specifically involves legal and civil rights.
deprive: Deprive applies to taking away any object or right, whereas disenfranchise centers on civic rights like voting.

enfranchise: Enfranchise means to grant the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.

Commonly confused with

disenchant: Disenchant means to free someone from an illusion or disappointment; disenfranchise means to strip political rights.

Word family

disenfranchisement (noun): The revocation of voting rights or civic privileges.

Collocations

disenfranchise voters
disenfranchise minority populations
systematically disenfranchise

Example sentences

"Poll taxes and literacy tests were historically weaponized to disenfranchise Black voters across the southern states." Voter rights history
"Failing to translate election materials into local languages serves to disenfranchise immigrant communities." Demographic isolation

Memory hook

DIS- (remove) + FRANCISE (franchise/voting privilege) = taking away the right to vote. Dis- means away, franchise means vote.

When not to use

Avoid using to mean simply hurting someone's feelings or annoying them; it requires a loss of institutional power or legal rights.

Fun facts

In English, the term 'franchise' originally meant freedom itself before coming to mean a specific civic right like voting or running a business.