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
After all, the series largely avoids other topical issues of modern campus life, from freedom of speech restrictions to administrators kowtowing to autocracies.
—
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 5 Mar. 2026
Do these pictures stealthily undermine that brand of autocracy because Foto Estudio Luisita was a feminist enterprise where women made images of women?
—Bryan Barcena, Artforum, 1 Mar. 2026
For 47 years, a theocracy has turned into an autocracy and kleptocracy.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 1 Mar. 2026
The Iranian regime is a theocratic autocracy controlled by religious figureheads and hardliners fully committed to the system that enriches and bestows power upon them today.
—Alexander Langlois, Oc Register, 18 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 5 Mar. 2026
Do these pictures stealthily undermine that brand of autocracy because Foto Estudio Luisita was a feminist enterprise where women made images of women?
—Bryan Barcena, Artforum, 1 Mar. 2026
For 47 years, a theocracy has turned into an autocracy and kleptocracy.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 1 Mar. 2026
The Iranian regime is a theocratic autocracy controlled by religious figureheads and hardliners fully committed to the system that enriches and bestows power upon them today.
—Alexander Langlois, Oc Register, 18 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for autocracy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for autocracy
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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Thousands marched through Buenos Aires on Tuesday to mark 50 years since the 1976 military coup that ushered in one of Latin America’s bloodiest dictatorships.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
24 Mar. 2026
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Unlike more cohesive dictatorships, Iran’s youth, middle class and ethnic minorities — Persians number less than 50% in a nation with seven major ethnic groups — are primed to rise once air power shatters the mullahs’ control.—
Chuck DeVore,
Twin Cities,
22 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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The protesters from across the Czech Republic attended the peaceful demonstration Saturday at Letna Park, the scene of huge gatherings in 1989 during the Velvet Revolution that ushered in democracy after decades of communist authoritarianism.—
Karel Janicek,
Los Angeles Times,
22 Mar. 2026
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When seen like that, as a sequence of facts, the logic of authoritarianism becomes clear.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Autocracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/autocracy. Accessed 26 Mar. 2026.
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