dystopian
Americanadjective
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resembling or relating to a dystopia.
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causing or characterized by an extreme amount of misery.
noun
Explanation
"Utopian" describes a society that's conceived to be perfect. Dystopian is the exact opposite — it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible. George Orwell's "Animal Farm," for example, describes a dystopian society in which Napoleon, a pig, represents Joseph Stalin in a farmyard satire on Stalinist Russia and how power corrupts. Other famous dystopian authors include Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ray Bradbury. The adjective dystopian describes anything that pertains to or resembles a society such as those described in this sort of literature.
Vocabulary lists containing dystopian
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Charming as Verb
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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.
Dystopian military vehicles straight out of Mad Max rumble past, encased in their own cages of steel and netting.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
Dystopian novels, broadly speaking, recount alternative versions of history, imagining different versions of both past and future and exploring their ramifications.
From Salon • May 17, 2025
Dystopian fiction, John Scalzi wrote for The Times a few years ago, “lets us simulate our worst imaginings from the private security of our own homes, the better to avoid them in the real world.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2024
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” a million seller first released in 1985, is a Dystopian novel about a cruel patriarchy known as the Republic of Gilead.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 7, 2022
They’ve sold sweatshirts proclaiming “low ABV,” and rustic ales like the 2.5 percent Dystopian Fields, which is seasoned with rose hips, spruce tips and pineapple sage.
From New York Times • Feb. 11, 2022
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.
