as in dictators
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
like some pharaoh of a third-world country, more interested in building monuments to himself than in creating a future for his people
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Recent Examples of pharaohs
Leprosy still existed, pharaohs did not.
—
Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pharaohs
Noun
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But as the microbes spread across the screen, the visual becomes almost hypnotic—and, as Peck recently told me, akin to how dictators overwhelm people’s abilities to determine fact from fiction.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
21 Oct. 2025
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The author understood how power works, and the lengths that people, classes, political parties and dictators would go to keep it.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
2 Oct. 2025
Noun
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As historian Timothy Snyder warns, tyrants will always take advantage of a national crisis to consolidate their power and remove their opponents’ civil liberties.—
Rev. Nathan Empsall,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
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And while the band's frontman Freddie Mercury only made it into his 40s, the song's question continues to haunt people—especially aging tyrants who fear that the icy hand of death is upon their shoulder and want far more time to ensure both national and personal glory.—
Nate Anderson,
ArsTechnica,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Finally, some inscriptions seem to indicate strong alliances or diplomatic ties with other Mayan rulers, a critical detail given that Cobá was a major urban center for centuries.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Oct. 2025
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Plus, with the new win, Yankee ties Bad Bunny with 29 rulers, the fourth-most following J Balvin (39), Ozuna (36) and Enrique Iglesias (32).—
Pamela Bustios,
Billboard,
21 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pharaohs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pharaohs. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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