ochlocracy

[ok-lok-ruh-see]

noun

1. government by the mob; mob rule; mobocracy.

ochlocracy

/ ɒkˈlɒkrəsɪ, ˈɒkləˌkræt, ˌɒkləˈkrætɪk /

noun

1. rule by the mob; mobocracy

Other Word Forms

• ochlocrat noun
• ochlocratic adjective
• ochlocratical adjective
• ochlocratically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of ochlocracy¹

1475–85; < Greek ochlokratía, equivalent to óchl ( os ) mob + -o- -o- + -kratia -cracy

Word History and Origins

Origin of ochlocracy¹

C16: via French, from Greek okhlokratia, from okhlos mob + kratos power

Example Sentences

But few want to allow voters to write them: that would be not so much democracy, they say, as ochlocracy—mob rule.

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We will not carry on any further our picture of the ochlocracy, in which all social union was entirely dissolved, and the state was surrendered to the arbitrary will of a turbulent populace.

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Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few.

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Their form of government was a near-anarchic form of ochlocracy, he knew—mob rule of some sort, as might be expected among such people.

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Hence Pythagoras and his disciples, though they were vegetable-eaters, eschewed the bean as an article of diet, from its association with politics, demagogism, and ochlocracy.

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