Standard Lemma guide

samizdat

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsæmɪzdæt/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /səmɪzˈdæt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The secret copying and sharing of illegal publications, chiefly in the Soviet Union; underground publishing and its publications.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: attributive, often, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A samizdat publication.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a system of clandestine printing and distribution of dissident or banned literature

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: underground press

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: print media

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian самизда́т (samizdát, “self-publishing”), from сам (sam, “self”) + изда́т (izdát), an abbreviation of изда́тельство (izdátelʹstvo, “publishing house, publishing”) (compare Russian Госизда́т (Gosizdát, “State Publisher”)).

Across languages

Translations

50 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Arabic: سَامِيزْدَات (sāmīzdāt) — underground publishing
  • Armenian: ինքնահրատ (inkʻnahrat) — underground publishing
  • Armenian: սամիզդատ (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Azerbaijani: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Belarusian: самвыда́т (samvydát) — underground publishing
  • Belarusian: самвы́д (samvýd) — underground publishing
  • Bulgarian: самизда́т (samizdát) — underground publishing
  • Chinese Mandarin: 地下出版 (dìxià chūbǎn) — underground publishing
  • Czech: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Estonian: samizdat — underground publishing
  • French: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Georgian: სამიზდატი (samizdaṭi) — underground publishing
  • German: Samisdat — underground publishing
  • Hebrew: סָאמִיזְדָאט (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Hungarian: szamizdat — underground publishing
  • Italian: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Japanese: サミズダート (samizudāto) — underground publishing
  • Kazakh: самиздат (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Korean: 사미즈다트 (samijeudateu) — underground publishing
  • Kyrgyz: самиздат (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Latvian: samizdats — underground publishing
  • Lithuanian: samizdatas — underground publishing
  • Macedonian: самиздат (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Persian: سامیزدات (sâmizdât) — underground publishing
  • Polish: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Portuguese: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Romanian: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Russian: самизда́т (samizdát) — underground publishing
  • Serbo-Croatian: са̏миздат — underground publishing
  • Serbo-Croatian: sȁmizdat — underground publishing
  • Slovak: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Slovene: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Tajik: самиздат (samizdat) — underground publishing
  • Turkish: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Turkmen: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Ukrainian: самвида́в (samvydáv) — underground publishing
  • Uzbek: samizdat — underground publishing
  • Armenian: ինքնահրատ (inkʻnahrat) — a samizdat publication
  • Armenian: սամիզդատ (samizdat) — a samizdat publication
  • Belarusian: самвы́д (samvýd) — a samizdat publication
  • Belarusian: самвыда́т (samvydát) — a samizdat publication
  • Chinese Mandarin: 地下出版 (dìxià chūbǎn) — a samizdat publication
  • French: samizdat — a samizdat publication
  • Hungarian: szamizdat — a samizdat publication
  • Italian: samizdat — a samizdat publication
  • Polish: bibuła — a samizdat publication
  • Portuguese: samizdat — a samizdat publication
  • Russian: самизда́т (samizdát) — a samizdat publication
  • Ukrainian: самвида́в (samvydáv) — a samizdat publication