dystopian

adjective

dys·​to·​pi·​an (ˌ)dis-ˈtō-pē-ən 

variants or less commonly dystopic

(ˌ)dis-ˈtō-pik  -ˈtä- 

: of, relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives : relating to or characteristic of a dystopia

A twisted romantic haunted by dystopian visions, Gibson borrows the language of science fiction and crafts doomed love stories with high-tech trappings.

—Maitland McDonagh

Dystopian visions are in a sense mythopoeic: depicting a creation myth in a future world of darkness and silence.

—Sarah Lefanu

Biotechnology is a force for good, but without adherence to the ideal of universal human equality, it opens the door to the soft tyranny of Gattaca and, ultimately the dystopian nightmare of Brave New World.

—Wesley J. Smith

Like many advances in science and technology, the dystopian implications of data mining have been described best by science-fiction writers.

—John Markoff

… Orwellian has become a word itself: an adjective denoting a dystopic world where language is cut adrift from meaning.

—Harvey A. Daniels

Letter by letter, we read of a society that seems to move from one dystopic nightmare to another …

—Simon Winchester

Examples of dystopian in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and many other films portrayed American heroes fighting their way through a dystopian backwater and then dealing with the psychic toll of defeat back home. —Andrew R. Chow, TIME, 9 Apr. 2024

What this absolutism produced, of course, was not another fusty neo-Edwardian novel à la Orwell’s earlier Keep the Aspidistra Flying, but a wild, aggrieved tour de force of dystopian erotica. —Stephen Metcalf, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2024

Some readers have criticized Enger for not explaining enough about the novel’s dystopian world. —Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 24 Mar. 2024

It’s powered by Unreal Engine 5 and is inspired by dystopian sci-fi worlds. —Gieson Cacho, The Mercury News, 17 Mar. 2024

Nicolas Cage plays a father of two in the throes of a dystopian world in EW's exclusive first look at the trailer for post-apocalyptic thriller Arcadian. —Jessica Wang, EW.com, 7 Mar. 2024

But in Ellen’s own section, set in a dystopian version of the 2040s, the carousel has stopped. —Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2024

Radu’s road-movie premise recalls Jean-Luc Godard’s apocalyptic Weekend (1968), once considered Godard’s greatest film, before dystopian movies became comic-book escapism. —Armond White, National Review, 22 Mar. 2024

The dystopian action movie came on tracking Thursday morning, three weeks ahead of its debut in theaters across the U.S. —Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

dystopian from dystopia + -an entry 2; dystopic from dystopia + -ic entry 1

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined above