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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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of tyranny
Russia has never had a James Madison, who pitted ambition against ambition, sordid motives against sordid motives in the U.S. Constitution to arrest tyranny.
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Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 15 Nov. 2024
Discussions about the significance and meaning of the novel will likely continue as long as there are writers and readers who aren’t subject to the tyranny of thought, behavior, and action described in its pages.
—Rob Crossan, JSTOR Daily, 15 Nov. 2024
Fight for women and our children and their futures and fight against tyranny, one day at a time.
—Caroline Thayer, Fox News, 6 Nov. 2024
That implies that just as federalism guards against the tyranny made possible through overt centralization, federalism also has counterweights to prevent individual state governments from wrecking the whole.
—Jenna Bednar, Foreign Affairs, 5 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for tyranny 
Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 15 Nov. 2024
Discussions about the significance and meaning of the novel will likely continue as long as there are writers and readers who aren’t subject to the tyranny of thought, behavior, and action described in its pages.
—Rob Crossan, JSTOR Daily, 15 Nov. 2024
Fight for women and our children and their futures and fight against tyranny, one day at a time.
—Caroline Thayer, Fox News, 6 Nov. 2024
That implies that just as federalism guards against the tyranny made possible through overt centralization, federalism also has counterweights to prevent individual state governments from wrecking the whole.
—Jenna Bednar, Foreign Affairs, 5 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for tyranny
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tyranny
Noun
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This made very little sense after the Russian people, hoping for a more democratic future, toppled the Soviet dictatorship.Jason Fields, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024
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The day after Chun declared martial law in May 1980, students in opposition to the order took to the streets, staging demonstrations against military dictatorship in the southwestern city of Gwangju.Chandelis Duster, NPR, 5 Dec. 2024
Noun
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But as astute observers warn us, allowing an ascendant American-style fascism to go unchecked will change the trajectory of our history and the history of the world forever.Priscilla Hart, Baltimore Sun, 3 Dec. 2024
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Which is hopefully a reminder that in 2024 fascism like inflation, is a catch-all pejorative that its users don’t really understand the meaning of.John Tamny, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Although Adolf Hitler met his road to perdition, Joseph Stalin survived and extended his despotism.Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 14 Mar. 2024
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His thug military’s attacks — and those of his thug street enforcers known as colectivos — on Venezuelans who’ve taken to the streets to protest his Gómez-ish despotism?Tim Padgett, Orlando Sentinel, 9 Aug. 2024
Noun
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The region’s Sunni autocracies, meanwhile, supported various rebel groups.Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 3 Dec. 2024
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Yunus knows that improving livelihoods is the only sure way to buy the necessary time to rebuild state institutions, so autocracy can never return—a new Bangladesh that prospers long after those murals have sun-bleached and blistered.Charlie Campbell, TIME, 21 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Rasoulof has talked about purposefully making his films less allegorical as his career has progressed, preferring to present his stories about oppression and totalitarianism plainly, so that his resentments are indisputable.Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024
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Mann understood the appeal of totalitarianism early on.George Packer, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2024
Noun
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The political absolutism of Sartre was a way of asserting fearlessness: Nothing, not even the presence of the U.S. Army, can intimidate me!Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
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But by the early seventeenth century the sovereigns of Britain, France, and elsewhere had begun to erode this medieval constitutionalism in favor of a new absolutism.Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 20 Aug. 2024
Articles Related to tyranny
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Cite this Entry
“Tyranny.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tyranny. Accessed 14 Dec. 2024.
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