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

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.”

From Los Angeles Times

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

From Salon

"Not much of the dystopia in this film is fictional," he notes.

From BBC

The tone of nonfiction conjectures about the future of Los Angeles generally fall into two categories, elegiac or apocalyptic — and sometimes both: “utopia or dystopia,” in the words of Davis.

From Los Angeles Times

We’ll never leave the present dystopia behind without a clear and more appealing vision of where we could be headed instead.

From Salon

Related Words

• antiutopia 
• cacotopia www.thesaurus.com