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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CONFISCATE

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pronounce CONFISCATE:

KONN fuh skate
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connect this word to others:

I learned the word confiscate in seventh grade from my friend Joanna, who glumly informed me one morning on the school bus that her parents had confiscated her new Offspring CD.

Which was a bummer for her, but I understand why her parents took it from her. It probably had one of those stickers on it saying "Parental Advisory: E_____it Content."

(Source)

Can you recall that word with the blanks? It means "containing profane language, or clearly expressing information about sex, drugs, or other taboo topics," and it's likely to describe all kinds of material that might get confiscated: taken away by someone in a position of authority. 

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

"Confiscate" has Latin bits that approximately mean "with the public treasury."

The prefix "con-" here means "with or together," and the base comes from the Latin fiscus, "public treasury, or basket of money." (That explains why "confiscate" looks like the word "fiscal:" "having to do with public money, or having to do with money in general.")

In English, "confiscate" first meant "to punish someone by taking their private property away and putting it into the public treasury;" it was something that government officials did to criminals.

Over time, the meaning generalized. Today, if you confiscate something from someone, you take it away from them, and you're able to do this because you have power over them: you're their parent, teacher, boss, or government official.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "Joanna's parents confiscated her CD." "They confiscated the CD from her."

Other forms: 

The other verb forms are "confiscated" and "confiscating."

And the noun is "confiscation."

how to use it:

When you want to sound formal and official as you describe people in positions of authority taking away other people's stuff, say that they're confiscating that stuff, often from the people it belonged to.

We talked about parents confiscating a profane CD from their kid, which is fair, legal, protective, and probably temporary. But confiscation can be fair or unfair, legal or illegal, protective or tyrannical, temporary or permanent.

You might talk about parents confiscating drugs from their kids permanently, or teachers confiscating food or phones from their students temporarily. Or about TSA agents confiscating weapons from air travelers, police officers confiscating money and personal property from innocent citizens, or kings and emperors confiscating food and goods from their subjects.

examples:

"Security at [General Motors Desert Proving Ground] is tight and our cameras were either confiscated or, in the case of my iPhone, covered in obnoxious red security tape."
  — Jordan Golson, The Verge, 23 July 2021

"The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act required districts to adopt policies for handling unpaid meals... It led to some of the most demeaning tactics schools have ever deployed against their own students... Cafeteria workers at a Minnesota high school confiscated the hot meals of about 40 students with lunch balances over $15, dumping the trays and handing out cold sandwiches instead."
   — Ashlie D. Stevens, Salon, 11 September 2025

has this page helped you understand "confiscate"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "confiscate" without saying "seize" or "appropriate."

try it out:

As we've seen, confiscation runs a pretty broad spectrum. Government authorities might confiscate things to be cruel and greedy, and familial authorities might confiscate things to be loving and nurturing.

Here's an example from the loving and nurturing end of the spectrum:

"Whenever there's a test I study at home for twenty minutes and get back to my Sims and stories. Ma was so frustrated with me in my first semester that she confiscated the laptop until my grades improved, which they sort of did because I really needed to get back to my made-up worlds."
  — Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera , What If It's Us, 2018

Did anything like this happen to you when you were a kid, or a young adult? If so, talk about what was confiscated from you, who confiscated it, and why. Was the confiscation temporary or permanent?

If this has never happened to you, talk about something that a parent or teacher probably should have confiscated from you!




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "CLICKBAIT THIS!"

Summon your creativity and dismiss your sense of decency as you invent a clickbaity description: one that's urgent, exaggerated, ungrammatical, conspiratorial, utterly false, emotionally abrasive, vaguely revelatory, full of feigned shock, and/or bloated with capital letters, question marks, exclamation points, and/or emojis. Get in there and be shameless.

If you're sufficiently disgusted with your clickbait, share it with a friend and see if they can guess its subject. I'll also share mine with you to see if you can guess it.

Clickbait this today: A vacation activity of your choice.

Try guessing my vacation activity: I PLUMMETED DOWN A ICY RAVINE WITH NOTHING BUT 2 STICKS (EPIC VLOG ðŸ˜±) (PURSUED BY YETI???)

Scroll all the way down for the answer to mine.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of CONFISCATE is

A. DISBURSE (to pay out).
B. DISTEND (to bloat out).
A. DISPARAGE (to talk trash about).

2. A writer for the Verge pointed out that "Qatar's stadiums have been built by migrant workers who are essentially _____ — their passports confiscated and their salaries _____."

A. guests .. generous
B. citizens .. fair
C. slaves .. suspended




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. C

From the game: Snow skiing.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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