exploitation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an act that exploits or victimizes someone (treats them unfairly)

   capitalistic exploitation of the working class

2. 2
   noun

   The act of utilizing something; industry.

   the exploitation of natural resources

3. 3
   noun

   The improper use of something for selfish purposes.

   the exploitation of children in beauty pageants

4. 4
   noun

   The act or result of forcibly depriving someone of something to which they have a right.

   Undocumented migrants are vulnerable to exploitation.

5. 5
   noun

   The marketing and promotion of a film.

   This territory continued to be the greatest field for the exploitation and distribution of our films non-theatrically, […]

6. 6
   noun

   A genre of media focused on lurid depictions of topical social issues such as violence, sexuality and marginalized groups.

   […]certainly it is not an adventure story, either, as McKernan seems to suggest, an exploitation novel aiming to attract readers through the use of "the odd," "the perverse," or "the exotic."

7. 7
   noun

   the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful

Etymology

Borrowed from French exploitation, from exploiter (“exploit”), from Latin explicō (“unfold, deploy”). By surface analysis, exploit + -ation.