dystopia
Americannoun
-
dystopias
plural
noun
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Etymology
Origin of dystopia
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How does dystopia compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A dystopia is a fictional world where people live under a highly controlled, totalitarian system. In his novel "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley created a dystopia where individual identity is suppressed and families no longer exist. Yep, it’s pretty scary. The word dystopia comes from adding the Latin prefix dys, which means “bad,” to the word utopia. So a dystopia is a utopia gone wrong. While the intention might have been to create a perfect society, all the regulations make life there really bad. Often a dystopia in a book is a society of the future, serving as a warning about what might happen if we let technology, industry, and government creep further and further into our lives.
Vocabulary lists containing dystopia
Literary Genres - Introductory
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Achievement First 7th Grade IA 1 Words
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Reading: Literature - Fiction - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
To stave off Huxley’s dystopia, we must deliberately shape our children’s souls so that they can be creators, doers and thinkers embracing the next frontier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
There’s a spacecraft and a robot and pirate references, all catnip for sci-fi and dystopia lovers and all very well done.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
It’s worth reminding ourselves that none of this dystopia stuff is especially new, even if it’s been hypercharged lately by electronics and algorithms.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2026
You might have read about the dystopia of super-polluted cities like Delhi, where the city always seems to be shrouded in dust, and you don’t see the sun for days.
From Slate ● Feb. 12, 2026
It would become a corporate-run dystopia, an overpriced theme park for wealthy elitists.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Alternative histories, particularly dystopias, reflect their societies’ radical pessimism, as Harvard professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore suggested in 2017:
From Salon ● May 17, 2025
There’s always a cognitive dissonance through our dystopias; how else would we survive them?
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2024
Science fiction writers, for example, have long been interested in both utopias and dystopias, but those novels from Hyde, Bump and Korn were not presented strictly as science fiction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2024
The best dystopias extrapolate issues in our society and make us see them more clearly by literalizing their metaphorical conceits.
From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
Afrofuturist writers explore a language of dreams and dystopias that expresses our greatest hopes while boldly confronting our darkest fears.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 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.
