misrule
Americannoun
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bad or unwise rule; misgovernment.
-
disorder or lawlessness.
verb (used with object)
verb
noun
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inefficient or inhumane government
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disorder
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of misrule
1300–50; Middle English misreulen (v.), misreule (noun). See mis- 1, rule
Vocabulary lists containing misrule
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.
His party's years in power, however, became associated with misrule and corruption.
From BBC • Nov. 5, 2025
Nigeria's election next week marks nearly a quarter century of democracy in Africa's most populous nation, which in previous decades had become a byword for coups and military misrule.
From Reuters • Feb. 17, 2023
Just ask Haitians in Miami who have long suffered under terror and misrule, or ask the Central Americans who fled civil wars.
From Washington Post • Dec. 28, 2022
“The pattern of many leaders is to be exalted in life and forgotten after death,” the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in a eulogy that seemed to speak to a world plagued by misrule.
From New York Times • Sep. 19, 2022
Wars, intestine commotions, and misrule have too frequently prevented the local authorities from paying proper attention to measures of public salubrity.
From Curiosities of Medical Experience by Millingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
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.
