autocracy

au·toc·ra·cy

noun \ȯ-ˈtä-krə-sē\

plural au·toc·ra·cies

Definition of AUTOCRACY

1

: the authority or rule of an autocrat

2

: government in which one person possesses unlimited power

3

: a community or state governed by autocracy

Examples of AUTOCRACY

1. <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>

First Known Use of AUTOCRACY

1655

Related to AUTOCRACY

Synonyms

absolutism, autarchy, authoritarianism, despotism, Caesarism, czarism (also tsarism or tzarism), dictatorship, totalism, totalitarianism, tyranny

Related Words

monarchism, monarchy, monocracy; Big Brother, Big Brotherism, Communism, fascism, Nazism; domination, oppression

Near Antonyms

democracy, self-governance, self-government, self-rule; freedom, self-determination; autonomy, sovereignty (also sovranty)

Other Government and Politics Terms

agent provocateur, agitprop, autarky, cabal, egalitarianism, federalism, hegemony, plenipotentiary, popular sovereignty, socialism

Rhymes with AUTOCRACY

bureaucracy, democracy, Eurocracy, kleptocracy, mobocracy, plantocracy, plutocracy, slavocracy, technocracy, theocracy