autocrat

[ aw-tuh-krat ]

noun

1. an absolute ruler, especially a monarch who holds and exercises the powers of government as by inherent right, not subject to restrictions.
2. a person invested with or claiming to exercise absolute authority.
3. a person who behaves in an authoritarian manner; a domineering person.

autocrat

/ ˈɔːtəˌkræt /

noun

1. a ruler who possesses absolute and unrestricted authority
2. a domineering or dictatorial person

Word History and Origins

Origin of autocrat¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; from Greek autokratḗs “self-ruling, ruling alone,” from auto- auto- ¹ + krát(os) “power” + -ēs, adjective suffix

Example Sentences

Quesada has legalized same-sex marriage, taken on leftist autocrats like Venezuela’s Nicholás Maduro and driven an ambitious green agenda, including a plan to reduce to zero all carbon emissions — and not just net pollution — by 2050.

From Ozy

These cryptosocialists view digital money as a valuable ally in everything from achieving equitable housing distribution to defeating autocrats.

From Ozy

He had worked for many years in the Middle East and Africa, dealing with warlords and autocrats who could become new clients for Ukrainian weapons and aircraft.

From Time

It’s a sucker punch that has worked for teenagers and autocrats alike for millennia.

From Time

In his plays, you always have the autocrats, who want to control others, and then you have the purer people, usually younger characters, like Hamlet, who propose love, who pursue a humanitarian vision against them.

From Washington Blade

These reforms were mostly designed to reassure Sunnis and Kurds that Maliki would not become an autocrat.

From The Daily Beast

Beholden to a base that, like a capricious autocrat, will turn against them at the slightest provocation.

From The Daily Beast

Nothing humbles an autocrat quite like the need to grub for votes.

From The Daily Beast

Tunisia was the first in a string of Middle Eastern countries to go through autocrat-toppling protests.

From The Daily Beast

But the issue should not be where a wounded autocrat convalesces.

From The Daily Beast

It was the case with the agricultural communities of the southern United States, whose Mico was at once high priest and autocrat.

From Project Gutenberg

Humble as Lecamus seemed to the outer world, he was despotic in his own home; there he was an autocrat.

From Project Gutenberg

She has always had the germ of the ruler and autocrat in her soul.

From Project Gutenberg

The Irish Minister for Agriculture by no means rules as an autocrat.

From Project Gutenberg

It was curious how he was growing to be a kind of autocrat in the village; and how unconscious he was of it.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• despot
• tyrant