estrangement

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe act of estranging; the act of alienating; alienation.

   1 more example

   The impeachment crisis is also a symptom of a country caught in a massive political estrangement that is tearing apart any sense of common patriotic purpose. It has exposed a political culture in which the facts – in this case, of the President’s actions – are no longer sacrosanct and that has been laced with a fog of misinformation by his allies.

   2019 December 18, Stephen Collinson, “A grave day in history: Trump faces impeachment”, in CNN

2. countableuncountableThe state of being alien; foreign, non-native.

In a sentence

The impeachment crisis is also a symptom of a country caught in a massive political estrangement that is tearing apart any sense of common patriotic purpose. It has exposed a political culture in which the facts – in this case, of the President’s actions – are no longer sacrosanct and that has been laced with a fog of misinformation by his allies.

2019 December 18, Stephen Collinson, “A grave day in history: Trump faces impeachment”, in CNN

Where it comes from

1. Old Frenchestrangement
2. Englishestrangement

Old French estrangement. By surface analysis, estrange + -ment (“act, state”).