as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
by the end of the 20th century many countries around the world had rejected despotism in favor of democracy
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Recent Examples of despotism
Picking your form of government used to feel like an existential choice, but now despotism and oligarchy are hardly differentiated.
—
Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2025
Western governments have burdened Georgia with a special status as a democracy-in-the-making in a region otherwise beset by despotism.
—Christian Caryl, Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2024
The threat of despotism went away temporarily.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 4 Aug. 2024
The necessity of power sharing also meant that Congress could provide a check against despotism even if the same party held the Presidency and a majority in both houses.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for despotism
Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2025
Western governments have burdened Georgia with a special status as a democracy-in-the-making in a region otherwise beset by despotism.
—Christian Caryl, Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2024
The threat of despotism went away temporarily.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 4 Aug. 2024
The necessity of power sharing also meant that Congress could provide a check against despotism even if the same party held the Presidency and a majority in both houses.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 31 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for despotism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for despotism
Noun
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In Serra’s work, nothing claims to be site-specific, and nothing claims to be seen, shown, or commemorated—these are the actual conditions of object experience in a social and economic order ruled by the dual tyranny of compulsive consumption and spectacle.—
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
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Opposition to tyranny lies at the heart of every freedom movement.—
Daniel Twining,
National Review,
22 May 2025
Noun
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His parents, Marcelo Netto and Miriam Leitão, are both journalists who resisted the dictatorship and were persecuted.—
Marcelo Cajueiro,
Variety,
27 May 2025
-
Men and women respond to the Nazi dictatorship by becoming, at best, evasive and feebly self-justifying, at worst, morally broken.—
David Denby,
New Yorker,
23 May 2025
Noun
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In the middle of the twentieth century, understandably proud of America’s indispensable role in defeating totalitarian autocracy, historians tended to emphasize our nation’s undeniable achievements.—
James T. Kloppenberg,
Time,
28 May 2025
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But if current trends are allowed to continue, Europe may soon encounter a completely militarized autocracy on its borders that is similar to North Korea’s in structure, and far more dangerous.—
ANDREI YAKOVLEV,
Foreign Affairs,
16 May 2025
Noun
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Daniel Kehlmann’s latest novel, The Director, documents the little compromises that led G. W. Pabst, like millions of other people, to accept fascism.—
Susan Neiman,
The New York Review of Books,
22 May 2025
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Jews tend to teach their children to be wary of fascism from a very young age, with its nationalist bombast, its cult of masculinity, its contempt for pluralism and its relentless, bludgeoning lies.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
21 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Despotism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/despotism. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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