as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
the Magna Carta is historically important because it signified the British rejection of autocracy and constituted the first formal restraining of the power of the monarch
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of autocracy
At the end of the day, these are autocracies in transition and entering into a new status quo that seems much more fragile.
—
Yonatan Morse, The Conversation, 19 Dec. 2025
There are now roughly as many authoritarian countries in the world as democratic ones, but autocracies collectively have more people and are growing wealthier.
—Nic Cheeseman, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025
Tracking the interior dodging and weaving of his characters too, Fallada delivers valuable insight into the varieties of mental resistance to autocracy.
—Literary Hub, 4 Dec. 2025
Bonta expects the administration, far from learning any lessons or harboring self-reflection during this mad dash toward autocracy, to continue full speed ahead.
—Anita Chabria, Mercury News, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Yonatan Morse, The Conversation, 19 Dec. 2025
There are now roughly as many authoritarian countries in the world as democratic ones, but autocracies collectively have more people and are growing wealthier.
—Nic Cheeseman, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025
Tracking the interior dodging and weaving of his characters too, Fallada delivers valuable insight into the varieties of mental resistance to autocracy.
—Literary Hub, 4 Dec. 2025
Bonta expects the administration, far from learning any lessons or harboring self-reflection during this mad dash toward autocracy, to continue full speed ahead.
—Anita Chabria, Mercury News, 9 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for autocracy
Noun
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Continue reading … 'HISTORIC DAY' – Venezuelan opposition leader celebrates January 3 as 'day that justice defeated tyranny' after Maduro capture.—
,
FOXNews.com,
6 Jan. 2026
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In the past, a popular uprising or a coup could bring tyranny to an end.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
4 Jan. 2026
Noun
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His socialist dictatorship, hostile to human life, crushed Venezuelans’ freedoms for years.—
Agustina Vergara Cid,
Oc Register,
7 Jan. 2026
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One of his uncles had been part of the resistance to the right-wing military dictatorship that controlled Greece between 1967 and 1974.—
Naaman Zhou,
New Yorker,
6 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Europe was collapsing under fascism.—
Philip Martin,
Washington Post,
7 Jan. 2026
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This is likewise the thrust of Salò, based on the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, an orgiastic, disturbing carnival of torture, rape, and killing, reset by Pasolini in the town from which fascism reigned in the 1940s.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
16 Nov. 2025
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These achievements made the United States the political model of the liberal state, which displaced the monarchical dynasties of Europe in the nineteenth century, then rescued Western civilization from the totalitarian despotisms of Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union in the twentieth.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The war from within The chronology of the last few months shows a troubling acceleration of aspirational authoritarianism.—
Mercury News & East Bay Times editorial,
Mercury News,
7 Nov. 2025
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The messy, vibrant democracy of my youth is a distant memory, snuffed out by a quarter century of ever harsher authoritarianism.—
Quico Toro,
The Atlantic,
4 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Autocracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autocracy. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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