annexation
- 01 C1 Advanced
the act of taking over a piece of land and officially making it part of your own country or city.
the formal act of incorporating a territory into the domain of a city, country, or state. Often implies a unilateral action rather than a mutual agreement.
Simple“The annexation of the small island caused a major argument between the two neighboring countries.”
In context“The international community refused to recognize the illegal annexation of the border province, maintaining that the treaty had been signed under duress.”
UsageOften used with the preposition 'of' followed by the territory being taken.
Teacher's tipIn modern political contexts, this word often carries a negative or controversial tone, suggesting the land was taken without the consent of the people living there.
SynonymsAntonyms
“It also accused Israel of using the settlers as an “unchecked tool to implement its criminal policies” of forced displacement and annexation of the occupied West Bank.”
“Barghouti said the goal of the campaign was “annexation and displacement”, and called for Arab and international pressure on Washington to halt Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza.”
From Medieval Latin annexation-, stem of annexatio (“action of annexing”), from past participle of annecto.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.