as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
concerning absolutism Lord Acton famously observed that "absolute power corrupts absolutely"
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Recent Examples of absolutism
At the Claremont Institute in California, the disciples of Leo Strauss, the intellectual guru to several generations of conservatives, combine Platonic philosophy, biblical teachings, and a reverence for the American founding into a politics of ethical and religious absolutism.
—
George Packer, The Atlantic, 24 Nov. 2025
Lyra’s quest to understand Dust brings her into confrontation with human and other worldly forces who champion moral absolutism over imagination, ignorance over knowledge, authoritarianism over free will and cold, disinterested rationality over empathy.
—Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
As Perez wrote, Musk’s free-speech absolutism was a fiction perpetuated by a pliant media.
—Jacob Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
The History of a Dangerous Idea, Dabhoiwala sees First Amendment absolutism in the practices of Facebook and its ilk.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, The New York Review of Books, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for absolutism
George Packer, The Atlantic, 24 Nov. 2025
Lyra’s quest to understand Dust brings her into confrontation with human and other worldly forces who champion moral absolutism over imagination, ignorance over knowledge, authoritarianism over free will and cold, disinterested rationality over empathy.
—Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
As Perez wrote, Musk’s free-speech absolutism was a fiction perpetuated by a pliant media.
—Jacob Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
The History of a Dangerous Idea, Dabhoiwala sees First Amendment absolutism in the practices of Facebook and its ilk.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, The New York Review of Books, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for absolutism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for absolutism
Noun
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Cutié, 56, knows about the tyranny many Cubans have lived under.—
Michael Butler,
Miami Herald,
14 Mar. 2026
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Was her exclusion from the political world not its own kind of tyranny?—
Moira Donegan,
New Yorker,
13 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Its founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, established a religious dictatorship that subjugates the Iranian people under sharia law, while zealously exporting its dogma by force.—
Elan Journo,
Oc Register,
10 Mar. 2026
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Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz’s ‘Another League’ chronicles the defiant birth of women’s soccer in the waning years of Francisco Franco’s arcane dictatorship in early 1970s Spain – today the reigning world champions after winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.—
Ed Meza,
Variety,
9 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Originally, the trophy seemed like Sean Penn’s to lose, for turning in an unforgettable transformation as the physical embodiment of fascism.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
12 Mar. 2026
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Hopefully the majority of people who still wish to live in a free society will vote in November to overturn the Republican march away from freedom and to autocracy and fascism.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The hope is that the institutional reforms started by the interim administration of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus deliver the necessary checks and balances to avert another lurch toward despotism.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
28 Jan. 2026
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The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
16 Nov. 2025
Noun
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There’s a lot of different crumbs of what leads to the autocracy, to the potential dictatorship.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
12 Mar. 2026
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Hopefully the majority of people who still wish to live in a free society will vote in November to overturn the Republican march away from freedom and to autocracy and fascism.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Hate, division, and authoritarianism aren’t new enemies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Mar. 2026
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For over three decades, Khamenei subjected Iranians to severe authoritarianism and repression, culminating in him ordering the security forces to shoot and kill thousands of Iranians during the protests in January 2026, not to mention those in previous years.—
Eric Lob,
The Conversation,
2 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Jury President Wim Wenders praised the film for its portrait of life under totalitarianism saying the story would chime with and serve as a wakeup call for people all over the world.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
21 Feb. 2026
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His loathing for totalitarianism was among the very few hatreds Reagan ever held, his biographer Edmund Morris said.—
Peter Wehner,
The Atlantic,
9 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Absolutism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/absolutism. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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