Hobbesian
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of Hobbesian
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.
For one thing, in our newly Hobbesian international environment, not keeping pace in the race for wealth and technology means falling prey to those who do.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026
In Hobbesian terms, life in a Fincher film tends to be solitary and poor, nasty and brutish, if not necessarily short.
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2023
The economy described in “Grime” has devolved into a Hobbesian hellscape of ever-more-humiliating gig jobs as everyone struggles to supplement the state’s universal basic income payment.
From Washington Post • Dec. 13, 2022
The Davids demolish the Hobbesian narrative by pointing to complex, agricultural societies—in Asia, the Middle East and the Americas—that governed themselves in nonhierarchical ways.
From Scientific American • Feb. 28, 2022
Life was a continual free fight, and beyond the limited and temporary relations of the family, the Hobbesian war of each against all was the normal state of existence.
From Evolution and Ethics by Huxley, Thomas Henry
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.
