as in ruler
one who rules over a people with a sole, supreme, and usually hereditary authority
European autocrats once commonly believed that they had received the right to rule directly from God
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Examples of autocrat in a Sentence
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An autocrat who carries out illiberal counterreforms and demodernization does not need liberal modernizers.
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Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 10 July 2024
Countries run by controlling autocrats go to great lengths to clamp down on the opposition and maintain the upper hand.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 4 July 2024
Until now, Maduro has been a cunningly effective and risk-averse autocrat, especially after underestimating the opposition’s strength in the 2015 parliamentary election.
—Jose Ignacio Hernández, Foreign Affairs, 29 July 2024
For decades, the Republicans styled themselves as the more muscular actors on the world stage, boosters of military spending and hawkish on the threats posed by autocrats abroad.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 19 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for autocrat 
Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 10 July 2024
Countries run by controlling autocrats go to great lengths to clamp down on the opposition and maintain the upper hand.
—New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 4 July 2024
Until now, Maduro has been a cunningly effective and risk-averse autocrat, especially after underestimating the opposition’s strength in the 2015 parliamentary election.
—Jose Ignacio Hernández, Foreign Affairs, 29 July 2024
For decades, the Republicans styled themselves as the more muscular actors on the world stage, boosters of military spending and hawkish on the threats posed by autocrats abroad.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 19 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for autocrat
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'autocrat.' 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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“Autocrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autocrat. Accessed 20 Sep. 2024.
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