shadow government
Americannoun
-
a group of people thought to be the real power secretly controlling the official government of a nation, leadership of a corporation, or the like.
-
Politics. the leaders in an opposition party, each of whom is assigned to track the activities of a specific member of the government so as to counter them in the legislature and, potentially, assume their roles should the governing party lose in an election.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
But they also encounter an authoritarian society, Ba Sing Se, where a shadow government maintains control over its population by censoring free expression.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Publicly they say they do, alongside the shadow government which was deposed by the coup, and the hundreds of volunteer peoples' defence forces which have sprung up to support it.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2024
It was never clear how much domestic support he had, however, and many of the people who made up his shadow government resided in Washington.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2024
Christian Malanga, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile, livestreamed his attack in Kinshasa on May 19.
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2024
Devoid of these two pillars of political might - Thaci may find himself unemployed, a former self-declared Prime Minister of a shadow government in Albanian exile.
From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Vaknin, Samuel
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.
