Hobbesian
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of Hobbesian
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In particular, he sharpens our image of the Hobbesian Thucydides, who founded the realist theory of international relations.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
In Hobbesian terms, life in a Fincher film tends to be solitary and poor, nasty and brutish, if not necessarily short.
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2023
The Davids demolish the Hobbesian narrative by pointing to complex, agricultural societies—in Asia, the Middle East and the Americas—that governed themselves in nonhierarchical ways.
From Scientific American • Feb. 28, 2022
Clyde’s worldview can be summed up in the Hobbesian phrase “nasty, brutish and short.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2022
The ants and termites have renounced the "Hobbesian war," and they are the better for it.
From Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
