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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The White House believes Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is calling the shots, a significant change from the theocratic dictatorship that has existed since the country's 1979 revolution.—
Jennifer Jacobs,
CBS News,
15 Mar. 2026
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Where the Silence Is Heard follows her journey of renovating the house and piecing together her family’s history, which has been colored by the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, exile, and decades of silence.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
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In Germany, the generation who educate the next generation, this is totally destroyed because of the fascism between ‘33 and ‘45.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
19 Mar. 2026
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The dark joke on both sides of the record is that fascism wasn’t defeated in World War II, only domesticated.—
Andrew Katzenstein,
The New York Review of Books,
19 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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For example, in the 1930s, four major democracies (Germany, Japan, Italy, and Spain) became autocracies.—
Ray Dalio,
Fortune,
14 Mar. 2026
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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
Noun
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Such a nakedly partisan message would not work in Boca, where the Republican base cares less about Trumpian authoritarianism and more about high quality of life and low taxes.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
16 Mar. 2026
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These days, Turcios’s politics encompass economic populism, America First nationalism, and religious authoritarianism.—
Rachel Monroe,
New Yorker,
15 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 22 Mar. 2026.
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