totalitarian
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.
-
exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- antitotalitarian adjective
- nontotalitarian adjective
- totalitarianism noun
Etymology
Origin of totalitarian
First recorded in 1925–30; totalit(y) + -arian
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.
The constitutional court said back in 2001 that "as time passes, the relative importance of standpoints and positions of people in a totalitarian state certainly has not vanished, but it has definitely decreased".
From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026
Mass manufacturing backstopped American primacy in the 20th century; the U.S. outbuilt and outinnovated its totalitarian foes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025
“A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy,” Orwell wrote in his diary while he was working on the book.
From Salon • Oct. 10, 2025
What’s amazing about “Brazil,” even after 40 years, is how prophetic it was about the manipulation of public mores and knowledge by a totalitarian regime.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2025
But what they didn’t say was that prison was also a microcosm of a totalitarian society, a nearly pure example of the police state.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
