autocrat

noun au·to·crat \ ˈȯ-tə-ˌkrat \

|Updated on: 16 Jul 2018

Examples: autocrat in a Sentence

Definition of autocrat

1 : a person (such as a monarch) ruling with unlimited authority

2 : one who has undisputed influence or power

He was the autocrat of his household.

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Examples of autocrat in a Sentence

European autocrats once commonly believed that they had received the right to rule directly from God.

Recent Examples of autocrat from the Web

On the cusp of President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin, Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, released indictments with profound implications for relations between the two countries.

— jeet heer, The New Republic, "New indictments complicate the Trump-Russia relationship.," 13 July 2018
Since then, authorities have waged a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of Islamists as well as many of the prominent secular activists behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

— samy magdy, BostonGlobe.com, "Egypt’s president begins 2nd term amid crackdown on dissent," 2 June 2018
The autocrats of Russia and Eastern Europe charge him with everything from trying to overthrow their regimes to staging fake chemical attacks in Syria.

— trudy rubin, Philly.com, "Roseanne's other twisted tweet of the week. (The one you didn't already read about) | Trudy Rubin," 1 June 2018
In Pyongyang, the North Korean autocrat woke up to state media’s enthusiastic claims of a victorious meeting with the US president; photos of him standing side-by-side with Trump on the world stage were splashed across newspapers.

— BostonGlobe.com, "With summit over, Mike Pompeo makes visits to Asian allies," 13 June 2018
At a summit meeting in Singapore on June 12, President Donald Trump and North Korean autocrat Kim Jong Un met to discuss the terms of complete denuclearization in North Korea.

— kaylen ralph, Teen Vogue, "The Most Ridiculous Moments From the Trump-Kim Summit," 12 June 2018
The focus is on nuclear weapons, and the young autocrat's international standing is likely to be boosted regardless of the outcome.

— matthew pennington, chicagotribune.com, "At Trump-Kim summit, human rights is a back-burner issue," 11 June 2018
In his place is Mahathir Mohamad, an autocrat who led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 before re-emerging to defeat Mr. Najib.

— james hookway, WSJ, "‘The Leash Is Off’: Malaysia Media Gets Scrappy After Autocrat’s Ouster," 1 June 2018
Modern political economists are more likely to emphasize how potential clashes of interest between autocrats and their subjects can generate terrible outcomes and mutual distrust.

— henry farrell, margaret levi, Vox, "Mark Zuckerberg runs a nation-state, and he’s the king," 9 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'autocrat.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.