dictator

noun dic·ta·tor \ ˈdik-ˌtā-tər , dik-ˈ \

|Updated on: 15 Aug 2018

Definition of dictator

1 a : a person granted absolute emergency power; especially, history : one appointed by the senate (see senate 1a) of ancient Rome

b : one holding complete autocratic control : a person with unlimited governmental power

c : one ruling in an absolute (see absolute 2) and often oppressive way

fascist dictators

2 : one who says or reads something for a person to transcribe or for a machine to record : one that dictates (see ¹dictate 1)

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Examples of dictator in a Sentence

The country was ruled by a military dictator.
the dictator had a fierce stranglehold on the country, keeping its people in poverty and ignorance

Recent Examples of dictator from the Web

Of course this was way before a certain North Korean dictator emerged.

— donna vickroy, Daily Southtown, "Destined to be dowdy forever? The difficulty of being named 'Donna' in 2018," 7 July 2018
Let the ruins, perched high above Madrid, serve as a warning to a nation riven by enmity and to any citizen who might wish for a dictator like Franco, a murderous strongman who would try to wring immortality from a shrine full of the dead.

— matías costa, Smithsonian, "The Battle Over the Memory of the Spanish Civil War," 28 June 2018
The first came in the form of a shiny new Mercedes sent to him by Anastasio Somoza, Nicaragua’s dictator.

— The Economist, "Obituary: Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the first cardinal from Central America," 23 June 2018
The look garnered an enormous amount of attention, and helped begin a conversation about whether paying attention to a dictator’s hairstyle came at the expense of engaging with his crimes against humanity.

— liz raiss, GQ, "Kim Jong-un Looks Like He's Wearing Lifts," 12 June 2018
None of the men who wrote and signed these documents sought to be tyrants, dictators, emperors, or even kings.

— charles e. f. millard, National Review, "China’s Strength Mustn’t Blind Us to Its Totalitarian Brutality," 15 Feb. 2018
The Bentley was featured in it, so the dictator confiscated the car when its owner wouldn’t sell it to him.

— mark phelan, Detroit Free Press, "Saddam Hussein’s 1958 Bentley stars at Concours d'Elegance of America," 11 July 2018
Dancers in leotards worked their moves in front of The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Josephine by Jacques-Louis David (1804), a massive mural depicting the dictator’s rise to power.

— meagan fredette, refinery29.com, "If You Want To See The Art In Beyoncé & Jay Z’s Video, The Louvre Has You Covered," 7 July 2018
Mr Fujimori governed as a dictator and resorted to systematic bribery.

— The Economist, "The price of electing saviours in Latin America," 27 June 2018

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

Origin and Etymology of dictator

Middle English dictatour, borrowed from Latin dictātor, from dictāre "to say repeatedly, speak aloud words to be transcribed by another, issue as an order" + -tor, agent suffix — more at ¹dictate

Note: Though formally a derivative of dictāre, the noun dictātor is attested perhaps two centuries earlier in Latin and may be an independent formation, though the model for it is not clear; the sense "issue as an order" of dictāre may reflect influence of dictātor. The form tictator used in the Old English translation of Orosius's Historiae Adversum Paganos had no subsequent use.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year