privilege
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a special right or advantage that only a particular person or group of people has.
n.a particular benefit, advantage, or immunity enjoyed by a specific individual or class of people, often to the exclusion of others.
Simple“In the past, only a small number of people had the privilege of voting in elections.”
In context“The diplomatic corps enjoys certain legal privileges, such as immunity from local prosecution, to ensure they can perform their duties without interference.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a rare or lucky chance to do something that makes you feel proud or happy.
n.a rare or fortunate opportunity, often used as a polite expression of gratitude or honour.
Simple“It was a great privilege to meet the president during her visit to our school.”
In context“I have had the distinct privilege of working with some of the most brilliant scientific minds of our generation over the last decade.”
Synonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
n.the power and advantages that come from being part of a wealthy or successful social group.
n.the unearned social or economic benefit or advantage resulting from one's status within a specific societal hierarchy.
Simple“The book explores how wealth and privilege can affect a person's view of the world.”
In context“Sociologists often examine how invisible privilege shapes the career trajectories of individuals from dominant social backgrounds.”
SynonymsAntonymsmarginalisation - 04 C1 Advanced
n.the legal right to keep certain conversations secret, such as those between a lawyer and their client.
n.a legal doctrine protecting specific communications from being disclosed or used as evidence in judicial proceedings.
Simple“The lawyer explained that their conversation was protected by attorney-client privilege.”
In context“The court ruled that the documents were not covered by legal professional privilege and must be handed over to the prosecution.”
Synonyms - 05 C1 Advanced
n.the permission to do certain things on a computer system, like deleting files or changing settings.
n.the specific authorisation granted to a user or process to perform restricted operations on a computer system.
Simple“You need administrator privileges to install new software on this laptop.”
In context“The security breach occurred because a low-level user account had been granted excessive system privileges by mistake.”
Synonyms - 06 C1 Advanced
v.to give one thing more importance or more rights than others.
v.to grant a particular advantage to a person or group, or to treat one idea as more important than others.
Simple“The current education system tends to privilege students who are good at taking tests.”
In context“The traditional curriculum has been criticised for privileging Western historical perspectives over those of the Global South.”
“Burgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov said it was "an honour and a privilege" to be chosen.”
“She doesn’t like to talk about “privilege” because everybody is suffering in some way.”
From Middle English privilege, from Anglo-Norman privilege and Old French privilege, from Latin prīvilēgium (“ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual”), from prīvus (“private”) + lēx, lēg- (“law”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.