as in dictatorship
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
a popular uprising replaced that nation's tyranny with freedom and democracy
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tyranny
Oceania is an absolute tyranny governed by Big Brother, the leader of a political party whose only goal is the perpetuation of its own power.
—
Laura Beers, The Conversation, 20 Aug. 2025
Drew must then fight to abolish the tyranny of the Lionlords and reclaim the throne from King Leopold and Prince Lucas, who are voiced by Ralph Ineson and Tom Rhys Harries.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 19 Aug. 2025
Observers pay tribute to their sacrifice and resistance against tyranny.
—Nour Rahal, Freep.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Had any Democratic president tried to so directly politicize these independent agencies Republicans would be screaming about the coming tyranny.
—Steven Greenhut, Oc Register, 10 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tyranny
Laura Beers, The Conversation, 20 Aug. 2025
Drew must then fight to abolish the tyranny of the Lionlords and reclaim the throne from King Leopold and Prince Lucas, who are voiced by Ralph Ineson and Tom Rhys Harries.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 19 Aug. 2025
Observers pay tribute to their sacrifice and resistance against tyranny.
—Nour Rahal, Freep.com, 14 Aug. 2025
Had any Democratic president tried to so directly politicize these independent agencies Republicans would be screaming about the coming tyranny.
—Steven Greenhut, Oc Register, 10 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tyranny
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tyranny
Noun
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Brazil's democracy emerged from a brutal military dictatorship just 40 years ago.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
2 Sep. 2025
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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,
CNN Money,
2 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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The Bashar Assad regime’s collapse inspired a wave of optimism about despotism turning into democracy.—
Daniel DePetris,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Aug. 2025
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If not for our nation’s First Amendment, our country could quickly resemble a despotism where police forces attack reporters and quash news reports that diverge from the official view.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
15 July 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
Noun
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Eclectic traditionalism, remade on an elephantine scale, is the style of totalitarianism.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
6 Sep. 2025
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Brzezinski would dedicate his academic and professional life to studying and undermining the forces of totalitarianism and authoritarianism that had overtaken his homeland during his childhood.—
Niall Ferguson,
Foreign Affairs,
19 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Democrats, on the other hand, are blasting this move as a sign of impending authoritarianism and call it an unprecedented overreach in presidential authority.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
29 Aug. 2025
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That, in fact, political authoritarianism was more likely to lead to modernization and advancement.—
Eric Berger,
ArsTechnica,
18 Aug. 2025
Noun
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The idea that executive absolutism can be stopped by a single district judge is a romantic but inaccurate one.—
George Liebmann,
Baltimore Sun,
2 July 2025
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Its champions gradually came to reinterpret the end of licensing as a natural consequence of the Revolution of 1688—part of the progression from tyrannical absolutism to parliamentary monarchy.—
Fara Dabhoiwala,
Harpers Magazine,
4 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tyranny.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tyranny. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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