oligarchy
Americannoun
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oligarchies
plural
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a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.
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a state or organization so ruled.
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the persons or class so ruling.
noun
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government by a small group of people
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a state or organization so governed
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a small body of individuals ruling such a state
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a small clique of private citizens who exert a strong influence on government
Usage
What does oligarchy mean? Oligarchy is a term for a government in which power is held by a select few individuals or a small class of powerful people. This can mean that these few people are the actual leaders, or that they influence or control the decisions that the leaders make (that they’re the ones “pulling the strings” behind the scenes). Oligarchy is never used as an official term for a form of government (like monarchy is, for example)—it’s almost always applied as a criticism of such situations. It is frequently used as a way of pointing out the influence of the wealthy and powerful in politics and government—an influence that’s typically used to benefit themselves. A country that is thought to have an oligarchic government can also be referred to as an oligarchy, as in Many outsiders view the nation as an oppressive oligarchy. Oligarchy can also refer to the class of people who have the power in this kind of system, as in The country was run by an oligarchy consisting of a few powerful industrialists. One of the select few who rules or influences leaders in an oligarchy can be called an oligarch. The word oligarch is especially associated with and applied to Russian figures known for their wealth and political influence. These figures are frequently called Russian oligarchs and are sometimes referred to collectively as the Russian oligarchy. Example: The members of just three families have run the country as an oligarchy for decades, serving only their own interests.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of oligarchy
First recorded in 1570–80; from Medieval Latin oligarchia, from Greek oligarchía. See olig-, -archy
Compare meaning
How does oligarchy compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Does it ever feel like just a few people have all the power? If it's a government that's run like this, it's an oligarchy. A country that has this form of government is an oligarchy too. The political term, oligarchy, comes to English from the Greek with its meaning intact — a form of government run by a small number of people such as wealthy landowners, royalty or powerful military figures. If you say that you can't fight the oligarchy, you mean the leaders of such a place. Sometimes the word refers to the few powerful people in charge of a large company or system. A financial oligarchy might try to block reform.
Vocabulary lists containing oligarchy
Play by the Rules: Arch
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100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
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"On Women's Right to Vote" by Susan B. Anthony
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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.
See Examples For:
George Mason and other proponents of the Bill of Rights intended the First Amendment to prevent the emergence of an aristocracy—or what we would today call an oligarchy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Typically wearing a traditional Caribbean shirt, Cepeda forgoes a tie, which he considers a symbol of oligarchy.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
Rakoff is a complicated guy, but he is as committed as anyone to standing up to the oligarchy.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2025
The G9 leader likes to portray himself as someone who fights for the common people and against the oligarchy.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2024
The families of the oligarchy forgot all about the barrel organ, and Marcos became the star attraction of the season.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Immediately following the war, Sparta established oligarchies of local aristocrats in the city-states that had been democracies under the Delian League.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Global supply chains were supposed to lower costs, boost profits and enable democratic values to seep into the terrain of oligarchies, dictatorships and autocracies.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 11, 2022
Autocracies, unlike oligarchies, make for engaging political theater.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2021
“The big Filipino families, the oligarchies, are not able to transition away from agriculture because they can’t transition to manufacturing,” says Lisandro E. Claudio, a Southeast Asian historian at the University of California, Berkeley.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2019
All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grew soft.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
