usurpation

From Middle English usurpacioun, from Old French usurpacion, from Latin ūsurpātiō.

• IPA^(key): /ˌjuːsə(ɹ)ˈpeɪʃən/, /ˌjuːzə(ɹ)ˈpeɪʃən/

usurpation (countable and uncountable, plural usurpations)

1. The wrongful seizure of something by force, especially of sovereignty or other authority.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, chapter VII, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, […]: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon […], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 270:

     The third part of practice hath divers branches, but one principal root in these our times, which is the vast and overspreading ambition and usurpation of the see of Rome; […]

   • 1685, John Dryden, Albion and Albanius, published 1691, Act I, scene i, page 10:

     Sent from the God's to ſet us free / From Bondage and from Uſurpation!

2. Trespass onto another's property without permission.
3. A taking or use without right.

• usurp
• usurper

• “usurpation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• IPA^(key): /y.zyʁ.pa.sjɔ̃/

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usurpation f (plural usurpations)

1. usurpation (wrongful seizure)
2. that which is usurped

• “usurpation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.