might makes right

Idioms  

1. Superior strength can enforce one's will or dictate justice, as in The generals dismissed the parliament and imprisoned the premier—might makes right in that country, or The big boys wouldn't let the little ones use the basketball, a case of might makes right. This expression was first recorded in English about 1327.

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Example Sentences

“To the victor nations go the spoils,” Anton wrote in a 2019 essay in Foreign Policy, crystallizing a worldview that sees international relations as zero-sum competition where might makes right.

From Salon • Jan. 7, 2026

At the end, Galt tells his fellow ubermensches to create a new order where individual might makes right.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 14, 2021

When Marshall writes that “conquest gives a title that the courts of the conqueror cannot deny”, it is easy to wonder whether anything more is being claimed in his rulings than that might makes right.

From The Guardian • Apr. 28, 2018

Without that, there is no long-term sustainability to moral progress, as it is just a matter of might makes right.

From Time • Feb. 6, 2015

It was, all in all, a grand example of interspecies lack of cooperation and the further illustration that might makes right.

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen