as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
having just thrown off the yoke of Great Britain, the American Founding Fathers were adamantly opposed to establishing some form of homegrown autarchy
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Recent Examples of autarchy
But that’s the point: These people don’t live in an autarchy.
—
David Marchesephotograph By Christopher Anderson/magnum, For The New York Times, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2022
But Russia’s economy is far too small to be an autarchy.
—Robert Zubrin, National Review, 10 May 2021
David Marchesephotograph By Christopher Anderson/magnum, For The New York Times, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2022
But Russia’s economy is far too small to be an autarchy.
—Robert Zubrin, National Review, 10 May 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for autarchy
Noun
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Not every encounter or exchange needs to entail a lesson in semantics, or the tyranny of cultural sensitivity, or the dominance of white males in academia and everywhere else.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
29 Aug. 2025
-
After decades of tyranny, Assad’s murderous regime fell in December 2024, turning Middle East geopolitics upside down.—
Ariel Cohen,
Forbes.com,
26 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Brazil's democracy emerged from a brutal military dictatorship just 40 years ago.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
2 Sep. 2025
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Brazil’s violent past has yet to be fully reckoned with, but this trial marks a historic departure from impunity, said Lucas Figueiredo, the author of several books about the country’s most recent dictatorship.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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That those women and men who died to end slavery, to win basic rights, to win the vote, to dethrone monarchs and destroy the ancien régime, to fight Czarism and fascism and Nazism and imperialism and apartheid, were in some way our moral betters.—
Jack Sheehan
September 4,
Literary Hub,
4 Sep. 2025
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The rise of fascism encroaches on her like a disease, culminating in a personal invitation from Mussolini himself, but we’re dealt countless scenes of Eleonora’s psychosis before we’re granted a contextual explanation of what feeds it.—
Blake Simons,
IndieWire,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Assayas addressed the timeliness of the Putin story in a world where autocracy seems to be relentlessly on the rise.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
31 Aug. 2025
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Among Putin’s various motivations for launching this war, foremost is the threatening alternative that Ukraine’s open political system presents to his own autocracy.—
NATALIYA GUMENYUK,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Democrats, on the other hand, are blasting this move as a sign of impending authoritarianism and call it an unprecedented overreach in presidential authority.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
29 Aug. 2025
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That, in fact, political authoritarianism was more likely to lead to modernization and advancement.—
Eric Berger,
ArsTechnica,
18 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Autarchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autarchy. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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