totalitarian

American  

[toh-tal-i-tair-ee-uhn] / toʊˌtæl ɪˈtɛər i ən /

adjective

1. of or relating to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.

2. exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.

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noun

1. an adherent of totalitarianism.

totalitarian British  

/ təʊˌtælɪˈtɛərɪən /

adjective

1. of, denoting, relating to, or characteristic of a dictatorial one-party state that regulates every realm of life

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noun

1. a person who advocates or practises totalitarian policies

Other Word Forms

• antitotalitarian adjective
• nontotalitarian adjective
• totalitarianism noun

Etymology

Origin of totalitarian

First recorded in 1925–30; totalit(y) + -arian

Example Sentences

It was adopted two years after former Czechoslovakia had shed the totalitarian communist rule of four decades, and two years before it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

From Barron's

Young people constantly pour themselves into digital surveillance systems, giving the managers of those systems a kind of power that would have had 20th-century totalitarians salivating.

From The Wall Street Journal

As writers and scholars, Lewis and Tolkien ranked among the most perceptive critics of burgeoning totalitarian movements such as Nazism and communism, in no small part due to their shared Christian faith.

From The Wall Street Journal

Nobody needs to tell a journalist in a totalitarian state what kinds of things can be published and what kinds of things can’t?

From Salon

It would also relieve the immigration system so it can focus on applicants from other countries who weren’t living under totalitarian rule.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• authoritarian
• autocratic
• monolithic
• oppressive
• tyrannical