dictatorship

[ dik-tey-ter-ship, dik-tey- ]

noun

1. a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
2. absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.
3. the office or position held by a dictator.

dictatorship

/ dɪkˈteɪtəˌʃɪp /

noun

1. the rank, office, or period of rule of a dictator
2. government by a dictator or dictators
3. a country ruled by a dictator or dictators
4. absolute or supreme power or authority

dictatorship

1. Government by a single person or by a junta or other group that is not responsible to the people or their elected representatives.

Notes

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were dictators.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dictatorship¹

First recorded in 1580–90; dictator + -ship

Example Sentences

The goal is to make it easier to publicly shame governments that sell surveillance tools to dictatorships.

From MIT Technology Review

Coming from a dictatorship without presidential elections to a country with one of the strongest democracies on earth is a 360-degree turn, one to which I am still assimilating and beginning to understand.

From Washington Blade

However, your work has a high dose of activism against the dictatorship and in defense of LGBTQ rights.

From Washington Blade

This August, the situation changed dramatically, and the front pages of the world’s leading publications were full of stories about the courage of the Belarusian people who dared to challenge the 26-year-old dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko.

From Washington Blade

There are certain elements of dictatorship in it, in the sense that the president has primary authority to determine policy in a wide variety of areas.

From Freakonomics

A second document was titled: “Gambia Reborn: A Charter for Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy and Development.”

From The Daily Beast

He is a true advocate for human rights who has paid a horrible price for standing up against the Assad dictatorship.

From The Daily Beast

Demographic changes are making that community less dogmatic, even through the Castro regime remains an oppressive dictatorship.

From The Daily Beast

It simultaneously reveals the absurdity of dictatorship and gives comfort to those languishing under an impossible reality.

From The Daily Beast

They backed him when the Sandinistas tried to establish their own Cuban-inspired dictatorship.

From The Daily Beast

Siyes desired a man who would overthrow the Directory and establish a dictatorship: Barras was coquetting with the Bourbons.

From Project Gutenberg

In this way he acquired a civil jurisdiction in connection with his military dictatorship.

From Project Gutenberg

If all the accounts of that dark dictatorship were true, they would have vanished from Terra, and not in their ships either.

From Project Gutenberg

On the 9th of February I proposed a military dictatorship, that alone was able to place on foot a hundred thousand armed men.

From Project Gutenberg

From him, Barrent learned that Earth was believed to be a dictatorship.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• authoritarianism
• autocracy
• totalitarianism
• tyranny