1. A previous official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa: Apartheid included political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
2. A policy, condition, or practice of separating or segregating groups from each other: Apartheid is a system of separating groups of people and treating them dissimilarly, which often results in a disadvantage for one group.
3. Etymology: Afrikaans, literally "separateness"; from Dutch apart, "separate" + -heid, equal to "hood" meaning "state" or "condition of being".