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
Elsewhere, particularly in autocracies, the data is simply too unreliable to use.
—
Duncan Madden, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2025
Even as a large Muslim autocracy in the Middle East weathering the boom and bust of the oil market, Iran wasn’t unique.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Simply put, America needs to remain a democracy and not become an autocracy.
—Norman Siegel, New York Daily News, 20 July 2025
One autocracy was over, another was just beginning.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 13 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Duncan Madden, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2025
Even as a large Muslim autocracy in the Middle East weathering the boom and bust of the oil market, Iran wasn’t unique.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Simply put, America needs to remain a democracy and not become an autocracy.
—Norman Siegel, New York Daily News, 20 July 2025
One autocracy was over, another was just beginning.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 13 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for autocracy
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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The Bashar Assad regime’s collapse inspired a wave of optimism about despotism turning into democracy.—
Daniel DePetris,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Aug. 2025
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If not for our nation’s First Amendment, our country could quickly resemble a despotism where police forces attack reporters and quash news reports that diverge from the official view.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
15 July 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
“Autocracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autocracy. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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