totalitarianism
[toh-tal-i-tair-ee-uh-niz-uh m]
- the practices and principles of a totalitarian regime.
- absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution.
- the character or quality of an autocratic or authoritarian individual, group, or government: the totalitarianism of the father.
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Origin of totalitarianism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for totalitarianism
Contemporary Examples
The huge difference between those rulers and Napoleon comes down to one word: totalitarianism.
If young adults can handle erotic vampires and totalitarianism, surely they can stomach some more fictional blood.
What in their history do they find inconsistent with totalitarianism, or at best statism, or at worst Marxism?
Although her story is extraordinary, it is also representative of an entire dark age in Russian totalitarianism.
People have forgotten what totalitarianism looks like, because they became obsessed with George W. Bush.
Word Origin and History for totalitarianism
n.
1926, first recorded in reference to Italian fascism, from totalitarian + -ism.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
totalitarianism
[(toh-tal-uh-tair-ee-uh-niz-uhm)]
Domination by a government of all political, social, and economic activities in a nation. Totalitarianism is a phenomenon of the twentieth century: earlier forms of despotism and autocracy lacked the technical capacity to control every aspect of life. The term is applied both to fascist governments (see fascism) and to many forms of communism.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.