anarchy
Americannoun
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a state of society without government or law.
-
political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control.
The death of the king was followed by a year of anarchy.
- Synonyms:
- turmoil, disruption, lawlessness
-
lack of obedience to an authority; insubordination.
the anarchy of his rebellious teenage years.
-
confusion and disorder.
Intellectual and moral anarchy followed his loss of faith.
It was impossible to find the book I was looking for in the anarchy of his bookshelves.
- Synonyms:
- disintegration, disorganization, license, turbulence, disruption, chaos
noun
-
general lawlessness and disorder, esp when thought to result from an absence or failure of government
-
the absence or lack of government
-
the absence of any guiding or uniting principle; disorder; chaos
-
the theory or practice of political anarchism
Other Word Forms
- anarchic adjective
- anarchically adverb
- hyperanarchy noun
- proanarchy adjective
Etymology
Origin of anarchy
First recorded in 1530–40; from Middle French anarchie or Medieval Latin anarchia or directly from Greek anarchía “lawlessness,” literally, “lack of a leader,” equivalent to ánarch(os) “leaderless” ( an- “without, lacking” + arch(ós) “leader” + -os adjective suffix) + -ia noun suffix; an- 1, -y 3
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 anti-Assad forces were splintered, mutually mistrustful and prone to looting; the areas they controlled descended into anarchy.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026
It marks the death knell of the post–World War II settlement that, however imperfect, wrestled the anarchy of war into a framework designed to condition armed aggression on legal justification.
From Slate • Jan. 5, 2026
The first few events sat somewhere between performance art and pure anarchy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 11, 2025
Built in 1977 with Chinese assistance, Mogadishu's main ground was closed in 1991 when the country descended into anarchy after the overthrow of President Siad Barre's military regime.
From BBC • May 30, 2025
Thus he chose to remember Hamlet’s abuse of Ophelia, but not Christ’s love of Mary Magdalene; Hamlet’s frivolous politics, but not Christ’s serious anarchy.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
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.
