dystopia

[dis-toh-pee-uh]

noun

1. a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

dystopia

/ dɪsˈtəʊpɪə /

noun

1. an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be

Other Word Forms

• dystopian adjective
• dystopianism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dystopia¹

First recorded in 1865–70; dys- + (U)topia

Word History and Origins

Origin of dystopia¹

C19 (coined by John Stuart _Mill ): from _dys- + _Utopia

Example Sentences

The Nobel Prize in Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, considered by many as Hungary's most important living author, whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.

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The Nobel Prize in Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, considered by many as Hungary's most important living author whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.

Read more on Barron's

Anderson employs many of the strategies of his historical films to evocative results, creating a distorted dystopia out of modern times.

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MIT’s Technology Review wrote of labs in which “man rebuilds creation to suit himself” and warned of “a path toward a dystopia of superpeople.”

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King also discussed his other dystopias, particularly “The Running Man.”

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• antiutopia 
• cacotopia www.thesaurus.com