How to Use oligarchy in a Sentence

oligarchy

noun
  • Their nation is an oligarchy.
  • An oligarchy rules their nation.
  • The corporation is ruled by oligarchy.
  • Before the Civil War, the court was a key ally to the slave-holding oligarchy in the South.
    Ian MacDougall, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
  • The judges Kennedy has appointed in the South are designed to protect the oligarchy.
    Fern Marja Eckman, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2020
  • Want to imagine life if the public-health oligarchy had free rein?
    Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2021
  • The wealthy were a corrupt oligarchy that needed to be shattered.
    Matt Pearce, latimes.com, 14 June 2017
  • But by 2018, even the English were growing uneasy about the oligarchy.
    Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New Republic, 24 Aug. 2022
  • Unlike the evil oligarchy of ancient Athens, the A.I. oligopoly set out to do good.
    Wendell Wallach, Fortune, 16 June 2022
  • The most important component of this oligarchy is the Cuban regime.
    Moisés Naím, The Atlantic, 25 May 2017
  • It’s the antithesis of Spotify and the rest of the music business oligarchy.
    Sadie Dupuis, SPIN, 7 Feb. 2022
  • In others, the New World Order is not about race or religion but oligarchy.
    Mike Giglio, The New Yorker, 28 July 2021
  • So much for a next generation of players ready to unseat the oligarchy.
    Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 10 July 2019
  • Most countries in the region are no longer controlled by a narrow oligarchy, nor under the yanqui thumb.
    The Economist, 12 Oct. 2017
  • As a result, the U.S. is currently more an oligarchy than a democracy.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 July 2022
  • As in Iran, the bite of sanctions has been felt primarily by the poor and unemployed, while the oligarchy has managed to keep itself in furs.
    Jonah Shepp, Daily Intelligencer, 20 June 2017
  • Hell, the Greeks knew that social inequality was the route through which democracy turns to oligarchy.
    Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 3 May 2017
  • This post-Soviet oligarchy also occurred in Ukraine, but the war is changing that.
    Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Of course, Maduro; his wife, Cilia Flores; and many of his relatives and associates are part of that oligarchy.
    Moisés Naím, The Atlantic, 25 May 2017
  • The maddening king of fantasy was deposed; the oligarchy of the writers’ room presided.
    Namwali Serpell, New York Times, 6 June 2019
  • In 2018, Abrams is running against hate, despair and an oligarchy that has turned the White House into a kleptocracy.
    Terrell Jermaine Starr, The Root, 17 Jan. 2018
  • After all the movement, the Warriors and LeBron James no longer lead an attention oligarchy.
    Jacob Feldman, SI.com, 22 July 2019
  • This is the police force the Southern oligarchy has used and created to protect their interests.
    Fern Marja Eckman, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2020
  • For example, why is there a technology oligarchy in the US?
    Steve Andriole, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2021
  • The Third Reconstruction should aim to end -- once and for all -- the oligarchy of rich Whites by creating an America in which all are equal at the voting booth, the school, the clinic and the workplace.
    Jeffrey D. Sachs, CNN, 25 May 2021
  • So what does the Constitution have to say about economic oligarchy?
    Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2022
  • Is this just the messy forward march of democracy, or evidence of a malign techno-oligarchy?
    Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 11 July 2019
  • This oligarchy, made up of Chavez's political heirs, is the third major component of the real power in Venezuela.
    Moisés Naím, The Atlantic, 25 May 2017
  • Some critics also say the wartime concentration of power around the government may give rise to a new oligarchy, and analysts say that oligarchs still retain significant levers of influence.
    Constant Méheut, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2024
  • The once vibrant ecosystem of diverse builders and entrepreneurs gradually gave way to an oligarchy, where big corporations devoured smaller enterprises.
    Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 10 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'oligarchy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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