as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
a revolution that only ended up replacing one dictatorship with another
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Recent Examples of dictatorship
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, 2 Sep. 2025
Advertisement The region’s left politicians have an understandable distrust of the police and military, having suffered under their heavy-handed tactics during the dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and elsewhere during the latter half of the 20th century.
—Christopher Sabatini, Time, 30 Aug. 2025
The act passed, 444 to 94, opening the path to Hitler’s dictatorship.
—Daniel Ziblatt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025
This was also a transformative period in Spanish history, just after the Franco dictatorship.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dictatorship
CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Advertisement The region’s left politicians have an understandable distrust of the police and military, having suffered under their heavy-handed tactics during the dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and elsewhere during the latter half of the 20th century.
—Christopher Sabatini, Time, 30 Aug. 2025
The act passed, 444 to 94, opening the path to Hitler’s dictatorship.
—Daniel Ziblatt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025
This was also a transformative period in Spanish history, just after the Franco dictatorship.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dictatorship
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dictatorship
Noun
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Just days after the sadness at Annunciation, the feeling outside the church of doing something was palpable, not the endless tyranny of hoping somebody else does something.—
Joe Soucheray,
Twin Cities,
6 Sep. 2025
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Due process is what stands between individuals and tyranny.—
Agustina Vergara Cid,
Oc Register,
5 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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Assayas addressed the timeliness of the Putin story in a world where autocracy seems to be relentlessly on the rise.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
31 Aug. 2025
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Among Putin’s various motivations for launching this war, foremost is the threatening alternative that Ukraine’s open political system presents to his own autocracy.—
NATALIYA GUMENYUK,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dictatorship.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dictatorship. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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