Nineteen Eighty-Four

Cultural  

1. (1949) A novel by George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a totalitarian society of the future, ruled by an omnipotent dictator called Big Brother. In this society, called Oceania, people's thoughts are controlled as tightly as their actions. The government maintains an organization called the “thought police” and engages in constant propaganda. (See also Big Brother is watching you.)

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Orwell coined the term doublespeak to describe one kind of propaganda practiced by the state in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Example Sentences

The series, which takes its name from the all-seeing ruler in George Orwell's 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, first appeared on Channel 4 in 2000, and was won by Liverpudlian building Craig Phillips.

From BBC • Aug. 2, 2022

Sales of "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" jumped in 2013 after the whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked confidential National Security Agency documents.

From Salon • Aug. 28, 2021

In an early chapter, Menand writes of the enormous success of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, which many stateside readers assumed was about Stalinism.

From Slate • Apr. 23, 2021

Or Big Brother in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a symbol of external, omnipotent oppression.

From The Guardian • Sep. 27, 2020

“The World of Nineteen Eighty-Four ended in 1989,” historian Timothy Garton-Ash declared optimistically in 2001.

From Washington Post • Jun. 20, 2019