dystopian

adjective

dys·​to·​pi·​an (ˌ)dis-ˈtō-pē-ən 

variants or less commonly dystopic

(ˌ)dis-ˈtō-pik  -ˈtä- 

: of, relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives : relating to or characteristic of a dystopia

A twisted romantic haunted by dystopian visions, Gibson borrows the language of science fiction and crafts doomed love stories with high-tech trappings.

—Maitland McDonagh

Dystopian visions are in a sense mythopoeic: depicting a creation myth in a future world of darkness and silence.

—Sarah Lefanu

Biotechnology is a force for good, but without adherence to the ideal of universal human equality, it opens the door to the soft tyranny of Gattaca and, ultimately the dystopian nightmare of Brave New World.

—Wesley J. Smith

Like many advances in science and technology, the dystopian implications of data mining have been described best by science-fiction writers.

—John Markoff

… Orwellian has become a word itself: an adjective denoting a dystopic world where language is cut adrift from meaning.

—Harvey A. Daniels

Letter by letter, we read of a society that seems to move from one dystopic nightmare to another …

—Simon Winchester

Examples of dystopian in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As such, the dystopian drama survived a real-life drama. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 7 July 2025

For a chilling preview, watch the dystopian film Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts and produced by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. —Emil Sayegh, Forbes.com, 6 July 2025

In the 1987 movie, Schwarzenegger's version of Richards is a former captain living in a dystopian world who gets arrested and recruited to appear on the government-run game show, The Running Man. —Caroline Blair, People.com, 2 July 2025

As Edgar Wright's trailer for The Running Man trends online ahead of its November release, the popularity of the upcoming film and its predecessor signals our recurring fascination with dystopian spectacles where survival becomes entertainment. —Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

dystopian from dystopia + -an entry 2; dystopic from dystopia + -ic entry 1

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dystopian

• bupropion
• fallopian
• utopian
• ethiopian