as in monarchy
a system of government in which there is only one ruler whose power is unlimited
Until its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet Union operated under a monocracy.
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Recent Examples of monocracy
The Biden administration justified its decision — or no decision — with the tired old rationalizations and justifications that the U.S. has been using for years to give the medieval monocracy a pass on human rights violations.
—
Ahmed Tharwat, Star Tribune, 1 Mar. 2021
Ahmed Tharwat, Star Tribune, 1 Mar. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for monocracy
Noun
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This was the era when the monarchy was terminated, ushering in a Marxist government that changed the face of the country and left a lasting impression on the world at large.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Mar. 2026
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Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the third person to lead the Islamic Republic and the first example of hereditary succession since the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy in the 1979 revolution.—
Patrick Sykes,
Fortune,
8 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Then in January, the Iranian people by the millions took to the streets, demanding freedom and an end to the dictatorship which has tormented them since 1979.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
3 Mar. 2026
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The coup ended Iran’s first experiment with democracy and ushered in over two decades of dictatorship under the shah.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Killing the tyrant doesn’t assure the tyranny will end.—
Nolan Finley,
Twin Cities,
6 Mar. 2026
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Ayatollah Sayyed Abdullah Behbahani and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabai used Islamic arguments to claim that even kings must be bound by law, and that tyranny was incompatible with religion.—
Bobby Ghosh,
Time,
5 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Putting private anguish and public witnessing into forceful tension, Paksa fashioned a productively ambivalent rubric for the artist under authoritarianism.—
Daniel R. Quiles,
Artforum,
1 Mar. 2026
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Resistance against authoritarianism requires a revolution that goes beyond words.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But for anyone outside the British elite, the constitutional monarchism that emerged after the civil wars did not look much like democracy or true liberty.—
Andrew Cockburn,
Harper's Magazine,
20 Aug. 2024
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And the Decemberists tried to overthrow the Tsar and insist on having some of the more basic aspects of representative constitutional monarchism introduced into Russia.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
7 Dec. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Monocracy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/monocracy. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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