as in tyranny
rule, control, or leadership by one person with absolute power
A soaring crime rate and civil unrest were harbingers to the rise of fascism in the country.
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Recent Examples of fascism
Sean Penn has the showiest performance, embodying all that is ridiculous about fascism, while his co-star Benicio del Toro makes an equally indelible impression embodying the quiet dignity of resistance.
—
Nate Jones, Vulture, 21 Jan. 2026
Jim then says something along the lines of how fascism, nationalism and populism never returned again.
—Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 20 Jan. 2026
His book circulated among American soldiers fighting fascism during World War II.
—John Blake, CNN Money, 18 Jan. 2026
Anything anyone’s not supposed to do based on their race or age or gender or ability or social status done in opposition to engrained social structures working for inequality, in opposition to patriarchy, fascism, capitalism, colonialism, serves as resistance.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fascism
Nate Jones, Vulture, 21 Jan. 2026
Jim then says something along the lines of how fascism, nationalism and populism never returned again.
—Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 20 Jan. 2026
His book circulated among American soldiers fighting fascism during World War II.
—John Blake, CNN Money, 18 Jan. 2026
Anything anyone’s not supposed to do based on their race or age or gender or ability or social status done in opposition to engrained social structures working for inequality, in opposition to patriarchy, fascism, capitalism, colonialism, serves as resistance.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fascism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fascism
Noun
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Bashar al-Assad, who oversaw the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of his fellow Syrians during a quarter century in power, may have achieved something new in the annals of tyranny.—
Robert F. Worth,
The Atlantic,
6 Feb. 2026
-
People, third and fourth generation Minnesotans were talking about tyranny.—
NBC news,
NBC news,
1 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But with his bent turned toward authoritarianism, the voters are now rejecting his policies.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
9 Feb. 2026
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These comments are said against a backdrop of escalating violence and authoritarianism in this country that’s directly tied to out-of-control behavior by federal agents conducting immigration raids.—
Thomas Kennedy,
Sun Sentinel,
9 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
This is not a dictatorship in the classic sense.—
Alejandro Reyes,
Washington Post,
3 Feb. 2026
-
Mendonça was born in 1968, in the early years of a ruthless military dictatorship—a time when cinema, like much else, was harshly constrained.—
Stephania Taladrid,
New Yorker,
1 Feb. 2026
Noun
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His loathing for totalitarianism was among the very few hatreds Reagan ever held, his biographer Edmund Morris said.—
Peter Wehner,
The Atlantic,
9 Jan. 2026
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After Al Qaeda and then Saddam Hussein abruptly emerged as incarnations of a new totalitarianism, Michael Ignatieff and Niall Ferguson, among many others, impatiently urged the United States to assume its imperial obligations and impose democracy, human rights, and free trade through war.—
Victor J. Blue,
Harpers Magazine,
23 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fascism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fascism. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
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