The word bondage, which is derived from the Middle English word for a serf, is today used in several different senses:
- Sexual bondage, the practice of tying people up for their sexual pleasure
- The term bondage is also an old word for slavery, as in the "bondage of the Israelites".
- The practice of debt bondage is named for this sense, and refers to a latter day variant of slavery in which debt is used to bind people, rather than legal ownership.
- the term bondage is also used in religion, to mean spiritual attachment, for example to sin or the physical world