1
as in cliques
a small group of people who exercise control over a country, business, etc.
Critics complain that the government is now dominated by an oligarchy of wealthy businesspeople.
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2
as in empires
government that is controlled by a small group of people
The nation was an oligarchy with election results manipulated to maintain a permanent ruling class.
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for oligarchies
Noun
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Their parties became notorious even in my own cliques; my parents knew to expect at least a few dozen teenagers crashing their party, sucking down all the noodles, and sneaking beers in the canyon down below.—
Natasha Pickowicz,
Vogue,
20 Feb. 2026 -
This graph had no cliques — clusters of nodes that are all connected to one another.—
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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That will not be achieved with our current focus on military strength and power as well as economic domination — only an uneasy peace, until toppled by resistance and rebellion, as all the great empires have been in the past.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Mar. 2026
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Indonesia’s richest man, Michael Bambang Hartono, who helped turn the Djarum cigarette company into one of the country’s largest business empires and later became a controlling shareholder of Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s biggest private lender, died Thursday.—
Niniek Karmini,
Fortune,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Look no further than airstrikes in Nigeria, travel bans on 29 countries, and chummy alliances with military juntas.—
Joe Wilkins Published Mar 18,
Futurism,
18 Mar. 2026
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In at least three Sahel states — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — military juntas that came to power in coups, notably Niger and Mali, have expelled Western military forces.—
Paul Tilsley,
FOXNews.com,
19 Oct. 2025
Noun
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There are still a significant number of countries and smaller political units that retain monarchies, however.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
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The deportations have been the subject of two legal challenges in Eswatini, which is ruled by a king and is one of the last absolute monarchies in the world.—
Gerald Imray,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Oligarchies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oligarchies. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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