Glossary of Terms: Politics, War, and Social Concepts

A

• Aboveboard: Legal and transparent.
• Anguish: Mental or physical pain or suffering.
• Anti-clericalism: Opposition to the power or influence of the clergy.
• Armistice: A truce.
• Arms race: Competitions between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons.
• Attrition: The action of gradually wearing down through sustained attack.
• Autocratic: Ruled with absolute power.
• Axis: The alliance between Germany and Italy in the Second World War.

B

• Bankrupt: Unable to pay one's debts.
• Barbed wire: Wire with sharp spikes used as a defensive barrier.
• Barracks: A large building or group of buildings used to house soldiers.
• Brushstroke: A mark made by a paintbrush.

C

• Ceasefire: A temporary suspension of fighting.
• Coalition: An alliance of political parties forming a government.
• Collectivization: The ownership of land and the means of production by the people or the state.
• Cyanide: Lethal salt of hydrocyanic acid.

D

• Devout: Having deep religious feeling.
• Duma: A legislative body in the ruling assembly of Russia and of some other republics of the former USSR.

F

• Field: Branch of study.
• Flat: Having a level surface.
• Fleet: A group of ships under the same ownership.
• Foreign affairs: Political matters abroad.
• Foreign aid: Help or support from other countries.

G

• Genocide: The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular ethnic group or nation.
• Grafting: Transplanting human tissue.

H

• Hire purchase: Payment in installments.

I

• Impoverishment: The act of becoming poor.
• Inherited: Received from past generations.

L

• Landing: The process of bringing something to land; arrival.
• Legacy: Consequence.
• Local council: Local administrative body.

M and N

• March: To walk along public roads in an organized procession to make a protest.
• Nuclear threat: The danger or fear of a nuclear attack.

P

• Pioneer: To develop new ideas or techniques.
• Privilege: Special right, advantage, or immunity for a particular person.
• Protectorate: A state that is controlled and protected by another.

R

• Race: A group of people or things with a common feature.
• Ration book: Book stating how much food you can eat during war.
• Refugee: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
• Rights: Legal entitlement to have or do something.
• Revenge: Retaliation for an injury or wrong.

S

• Scarce: Insufficient for the demand.
• Seek: Attempt to obtain or do.
• Stocks: The capital raised by a company through the issue of shares.
• Suppress: Forcibly repress or defeat.
• Surplus: Extra; unused.
• Surrender: To give up.

T

• Tenant: A person occupying rented land or property.
• Totalitarian: Relating to a centralized and dictatorial system of government requiring complete subservience to the state.
• Troops: Soldiers or armed forces.
• Tsar: An emperor of Russia before 1917.

V and W

• Vindicate: To show to be right or justified; to support.
• Warfare: Engagement in war.
• Widow: A woman who has lost her husband.