CHATTEL Synonyms: 55 Similar and Opposite Words

chattel

noun

ˈcha-tᵊl

Definition of chattel

as in slave

a person who is considered the property of another person an amendment to end the keeping of humans as chattel

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in possession

chattels plural transportable items that one owns packed up all her chattels and moved to a new state

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 chattel Before meeting Rael-Gálvez, Daria Celeste Landress had learned while researching her family history that three Indigenous ancestors had been listed in historical documents as chattel, alongside furniture, houses, and trees. — Geraldo Cadava, New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2026 Patriarchal cultures reduce women to economic dependence, treating them as a form of chattel to be traded among families. — Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025 There was no forgetting the notorious Confederate prison camps like Andersonville and Salisbury, the Confederate pogrom at Fort Pillow, and the fact that the South had seceded in the first place to perpetuate and expand an elite-serving economy based on human chattel. — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 5 Oct. 2025 Only a racist would dare to defend or dismiss slavery, which stripped Africans of human rights and enslaved them as chattel to pick cotton on Southern plantations. — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 21 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for chattel

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chattel

Noun

That's about the legacy of slavery and the monuments commemorating the Confederacy and slave holders and the distortions of history.

— Terry Gross, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026
In several instances these rituals were utilized during slave rebellions; the New York slave rebellion of 1712 reportedly began with a pact sealed in blood and powder, a practice with African religious parallels.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of slave

Noun

By then Arsenal were cruising, thanks to an hour of crisp passing and progressive possession punctuated by goals from Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Odegaard.

— Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2026
Fulton was able to run out the on its final possession to secure the win.

— Felipe Gamino, Daily News, 22 Aug. 2026

Definition of possession

Noun

The comment cards and all that stuff is very challenging, and then people weaponize that in different ways.

— Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 24 Aug. 2026
Lynch’s massive draft whiffs feel like harmless clerical rounding errors next to his good work in handling all the off-the-field stuff that lands on his desk.

— Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 24 Aug. 2026