Standard Lemma guide

serf

noun · 4 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: /sɜːf/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: /sɝf/
  • Scotland: /sɛɹf/
  • New-Zealand, Wales: /søːf/
  • /seːf/ Liverpool, fair–fur merger
  • /sɛːf/ Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
  • homophone: surf (fern–fir–fur merger)
  • rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)f
  • CMU ARPABET: S ER1 F Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, attached like a slave to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: helot

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A similar agricultural labourer in 18th and 19th century Europe.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A worker unit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: strategy games

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: peasant, peon, villager

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

(Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: helot, villein

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: thrall

Narrower terms: cotter, cottier

History

Etymology

From Middle English serf, from Old French serf, from Latin servus (“slave, serf, servant”).

Across languages

Translations

84 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: shërbëtor — semifree peasant
  • Albanian: rëmër — semifree peasant
  • Arabic: قِنّ (qinn) — semifree peasant
  • Armenian: ճորտ (čort) — semifree peasant
  • Belarusian: прыго́нны (pryhónny) — semifree peasant
  • Belarusian: прыго́нная (pryhónnaja) — semifree peasant
  • Bulgarian: кре́постник (krépostnik) — semifree peasant
  • Bulgarian: кре́постничка (krépostnička) — semifree peasant
  • Bulgarian: кре́постен се́лянин (kréposten séljanin) — semifree peasant
  • Burmese: မြေကျွန် (mre-kywan) — semifree peasant
  • Catalan: serf — semifree peasant
  • Chinese Mandarin: 農奴 /农奴 (nóngnú) — semifree peasant
  • Czech: nevolník — semifree peasant
  • Danish: livegen — semifree peasant
  • Dutch: horige — semifree peasant
  • Dutch: laat — semifree peasant
  • Dutch: lijfeigene — semifree peasant
  • Dutch: serf — semifree peasant
  • Erzya: модаре (modare) — semifree peasant
  • Erzya: модарява (modaŕava) — semifree peasant
  • Estonian: pärisori — semifree peasant
  • Finnish: maaorja — semifree peasant
  • French: serf — semifree peasant
  • Galician: servo — semifree peasant
  • German: Leibeigener — semifree peasant
  • Greek: δουλοπάροικος (doulopároikos) — semifree peasant
  • Greek: κολλίγας (kollígas) — semifree peasant
  • Ancient Greek: θής (thḗs) — semifree peasant
  • Ancient Greek: θῆσσα (thêssa) — semifree peasant
  • Hebrew: צמית (tsamit) — semifree peasant
  • Hebrew: אריס (aris) — semifree peasant
  • Hungarian: jobbágy — semifree peasant
  • Ingrian: krepostnoi — semifree peasant
  • Irish: seirfeach — semifree peasant
  • Irish: daoirseach — semifree peasant
  • Irish: daor — semifree peasant
  • Old Irish: dóer — semifree peasant
  • Italian: servo della gleba — semifree peasant
  • Japanese: 農奴 (nōdo) — semifree peasant
  • Japanese: 小作人 (kosakunin) — semifree peasant
  • Korean: 농노 (nongno) — semifree peasant
  • Latin: colōnus — semifree peasant
  • Macedonian: кмет (kmet) — semifree peasant
  • Macedonian: закре́постен се́ланец (zakréposten sélanec) — semifree peasant
  • Macedonian: кре́посен се́ланец (kréposen sélanec) — semifree peasant
  • Māori: rōpā — semifree peasant
  • Māori: poroteke — semifree peasant
  • Middle English: servaunt — semifree peasant
  • Norwegian Bokmål: leilending — semifree peasant
  • Norwegian Bokmål: livegen — semifree peasant
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: leiglending — semifree peasant
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: liveigen — semifree peasant
  • Occitan: sèrf — semifree peasant
  • Polish: chłop pańszczyźniany — semifree peasant
  • Polish: kmieć — semifree peasant
  • Portuguese: servo — semifree peasant
  • Romanian: iobag — semifree peasant
  • Romanian: șerb — semifree peasant
  • Russian: крепостно́й (krepostnój) — semifree peasant
  • Russian: крепостна́я (krepostnája) — semifree peasant
  • Russian: холо́п (xolóp) — semifree peasant
  • Serbo-Croatian: кме̏т — semifree peasant
  • Serbo-Croatian: кмѐтица — semifree peasant
  • Serbo-Croatian: kmȅt — semifree peasant
  • Serbo-Croatian: kmètica — semifree peasant
  • Slovak: nevoľník — semifree peasant
  • Slovene: tlačan — semifree peasant
  • Spanish: siervo — semifree peasant
  • Swedish: livegen — semifree peasant
  • Tatar: кол (qol) — semifree peasant
  • Thai: ไพร่ (prâi) — semifree peasant
  • Thai: ข้าไพร่ — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: མངའ་འབངས — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: མངའ་ཞབས (mnga' zhabs) — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: དུད་ཆང (dud chang) — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: བྲན (bran) — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: བྲན་གཡོག — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: འབངས་འཁོར — semifree peasant
  • Tibetan: མི་སེར (mi ser) — semifree peasant
  • Ukrainian: кріпосни́й (kriposnýj) — semifree peasant
  • Ukrainian: кріпосна́ (kriposná) — semifree peasant
  • Ukrainian: кріпа́к (kripák) — semifree peasant
  • Vietnamese: nông nô — semifree peasant
  • Welsh: taeog — semifree peasant