1
as in cliques
a small group of people who exercise control over a country, business, etc.
Critics complain that the government is now dominated by an oligarchy of wealthy businesspeople.
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2
as in empires
government that is controlled by a small group of people
The nation was an oligarchy with election results manipulated to maintain a permanent ruling class.
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for oligarchies
Noun
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Their parties became notorious even in my own cliques; my parents knew to expect at least a few dozen teenagers crashing their party, sucking down all the noodles, and sneaking beers in the canyon down below.—
Natasha Pickowicz,
Vogue,
20 Feb. 2026 -
This graph had no cliques — clusters of nodes that are all connected to one another.—
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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If empires could assign names to vast mountain ranges—Hindu Kush, from the Persian kushtan, to kill—with administrative casualness, as if naming could override geological fact, why not render those summits as battered cookware?—
Anel Rakhimzhanova,
Artforum,
1 Mar. 2026
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As decolonization transformed fading colonial empires into a hundred new nations, rival superpowers dispatched covert operatives, latter-day men on the spot, to win over those emerging states by any means necessary.—
Alfred McCoy,
Literary Hub,
26 Feb. 2026
Noun
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In at least three Sahel states — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — military juntas that came to power in coups, notably Niger and Mali, have expelled Western military forces.—
Paul Tilsley,
FOXNews.com,
19 Oct. 2025
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Kuti was an outspoken critic of Nigeria’s military juntas in the 1970s.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Several countries that once abolished their monarchies—including Spain, Cambodia, and Britain (under Oliver Cromwell)—later restored them as constitutional monarchies.—
Karim Sadjadpour,
The Atlantic,
10 Jan. 2026
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First, that monarchies are inherently corrupt.—
Dan Snyder,
CBS News,
9 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Oligarchies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oligarchies. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
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