as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
the Magna Carta is historically important because it signified the British rejection of autocracy and constituted the first formal restraining of the power of the monarch
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of autocracy
When a leader sets legislators on the sidelines, as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did during the COVID pandemic and Trump is doing now, republican governing gives way to autocracy.
—
Nolan Finley, The Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2025
Trump’s transactional and pragmatic engagement with adversaries may do more to tame geopolitical rivalry than Biden’s view of a globe defined by a clash between democracy and autocracy.
—Charles A. Kupchan, The Atlantic, 10 Jan. 2025
Democracies were left dependent on autocracies, which were empowered to engage in economic coercion.
—Katherine Tai, Foreign Affairs, 9 Jan. 2025
Now, as the anti-regime coalition starts to disband Assad’s military, and lays out its vision for a post-Assad Syria, experts wonder if the next phase will be a new dawn for a people strangled by a brutal autocracy – or whether sectarianism will bring a different type of authoritarian rule.
—Sana Noor Haq, CNN, 8 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Nolan Finley, The Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2025
Trump’s transactional and pragmatic engagement with adversaries may do more to tame geopolitical rivalry than Biden’s view of a globe defined by a clash between democracy and autocracy.
—Charles A. Kupchan, The Atlantic, 10 Jan. 2025
Democracies were left dependent on autocracies, which were empowered to engage in economic coercion.
—Katherine Tai, Foreign Affairs, 9 Jan. 2025
Now, as the anti-regime coalition starts to disband Assad’s military, and lays out its vision for a post-Assad Syria, experts wonder if the next phase will be a new dawn for a people strangled by a brutal autocracy – or whether sectarianism will bring a different type of authoritarian rule.
—Sana Noor Haq, CNN, 8 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for autocracy
Noun
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However since then, the 43-year-old has had a disdain for the rapper, as she’s excitedly backed K. Dot’s tyranny against Drake.—
Amber Corrine,
VIBE.com,
10 Feb. 2025
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But the people in Gaza shouldn’t have to pay for a tyranny that rules over them with an iron fist.—
Hen Mazzig,
Sun Sentinel,
6 Feb. 2025
Noun
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The accusations, laid out in a 272-page indictment, suggest that Brazil came strikingly close to plunging back into, in effect, a military dictatorship nearly four decades into its modern democracy.—
Jack Nicas,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2025
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Torres’ portrayal of Eunice Paiva, a mother who spent decades searching for justice after the disappearance of her husband during Brazil’s military dictatorship, has resonated with audiences and critics alike.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
13 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Democrats like to hurl around the charge of fascism at Republicans.—
Walter E Block,
Orange County Register,
13 Feb. 2025
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Who’s to say that a serious-minded semi-Marxist critique of economic desperation and the rise of fascism in the Star Wars universe is somehow harder than transplanting the 1980s Amblin sensibility to the same universe?—
Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
29 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Picking your form of government used to feel like an existential choice, but now despotism and oligarchy are hardly differentiated.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
12 Feb. 2025
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Western governments have burdened Georgia with a special status as a democracy-in-the-making in a region otherwise beset by despotism.—
Christian Caryl,
Foreign Affairs,
26 Dec. 2024
Articles Related to autocracy
Cite this Entry
“Autocracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autocracy. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025.
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