gerontocracy

noun

ger·​on·​toc·​ra·​cy ˌjer-ən-ˈtä-krə-sē 

plural gerontocracies

: rule by elders

specifically : a form of social organization in which a group of old men or a council of elders dominates or exercises control

gerontocrat

jə-ˈrän-tə-ˌkrat 

noun

gerontocratic

jə-ˌrän-tə-ˈkra-tik 

adjective

Examples of gerontocracy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That old man was Trump—who had just been hospitalized with COVID-19, but was pretending that everything was fine—and yet the column was about America’s gerontocracy as a whole, and what Smith suggested was an unsustainable media omertà around it. —Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 23 May 2025

That said, last week also reminded us that the Democrats’ flirtation with gerontocracy is not confined to a single office or branch of government when, on Wednesday, the House was shaken by the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. —Michelle Cottle, Mercury News, 29 May 2025

This is a difficult time to defend the gerontocracy. —Jack Butler, National Review, 25 May 2025

There’s another element at play in the political power vacuum that now exists in Hollywood: its gerontocracy crisis. —Peter Kiefer, HollywoodReporter, 2 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French gérontocratie, from géronto- geronto- + -cratie -cracy

First Known Use

1830, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for gerontocracy

• aristocracy
• meritocracy
• autocracy
• bureaucracy
• democracy
• hypocrisy
• plutocracy
• theocracy