Synonyms of dictators

dictators

noun

plural of dictator

as in tyrants

a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way

the dictator had a fierce stranglehold on the country, keeping its people in poverty and ignorance

Synonyms & Similar Words

• tyrants
• pharaohs
• rulers
• despots
• warlords
• oppressors
• strongmen
• tycoons
• kings
• leaders
• men on horseback
• princes
• overlords
• magnates
• autocrats
• monarchs
• caesars
• führers
• barons
• authoritarians
• potentates
• totalitarians
• dominators
• tyrannizers
• bosses
• lords
• caudillos
• masters
• czars
• sovereigns
• chiefs
• Big Brothers
• queens
• moguls
• captains
• monocrats
• kingpins
• enforcers
• paramounts
• autarchs
• taskmasters
• disciplinarians
• martinets
• discipliners

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of dictators

Trump has praised Communist dictators in terms unlike those used by any American president outside the context of a wartime alliance. — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026

Will people who flee dictators and endless poverty be permitted lawfully to cross America’s shores and borders in search of a better life? — Chicago Tribune, 16 June 2026

Russian athletes are routinely asked to answer for the actions of their government, yet athletes from other countries are rarely subjected to the same scrutiny or treated as though they are personally aligned with war criminals or dictators. — Jon Root Outkick, FOXNews.com, 7 June 2026

How To Feed a Dictator by Andrew Neel gathers testimonies from the kitchens of five of global history’s most notorious dictators — Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet and Kim Jong-il. — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 3 June 2026

But would-be and actual dictators do tend to follow a common set of strategies to consolidate power. — Christopher Justin Einolf, The Conversation, 22 May 2026

The opportunity to interview these people would never have been turned down by other organizations, but there was also a sense that these dictators and terrorists and authoritarians were realizing that CNN were giving them this unfiltered platform to speak to the American people. — Dana Taylor, USA Today, 13 May 2026

Even under military threat, many dictators and authoritarian leaders — Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Bashar al-Assad in Syria and earlier this year, Maduro in Venezuela — have chosen resistance until the last minute. — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 23 Apr. 2026

Years later, as Ukraine fights a war to defend its democracy — to preserve a state where institutions serve the people rather than dictators, where the press remains independent, and where citizens can shape the politics around them — the contrast between the two countries is striking. — Nataliya Gumenyuk, The Dial, 21 Apr. 2026