Democratic-Republican

adjective

Dem·​o·​crat·​ic-Re·​pub·​li·​can ˌde-mə-ˈkra-tik-ri-ˈpə-bli-kən 

in U.S. history

: of or relating to a major early American political party emphasizing states' rights and favoring a strict interpretation of the Constitution to restrict the powers of the federal government

Note: The Democratic-Republican party is the direct antecedent of the current Democratic Party (see democratic sense 1) and was the first opposition (see opposition sense 5b) political party in the U.S. It was organized in 1792 under the name of "the Republican Party," and its members held power nationally between 1801 and 1825.

Democratic-Republican noun

plural Democratic-Republicans

Examples of Democratic-Republican in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This sentiment came full circle in 1807, during an internal Democratic-Republican battle to move the Essex County Courthouse from Newark to Elizabethtown. —Peter Zablocki, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 July 2025

Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts contributed to the defeat of the Federalists in the election of 1800, which was won by Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican candidate. —Nicole Brown Chau, CBS News, 26 Mar. 2025

The new law attempted to crack down on critical writings about government officials, and it was aimed at Democratic-Republican newspaper editors in particular. —Marianne Holdzkom, The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2025

The nation’s period of domestic bliss was practically coterminous with the presidency of James Monroe, a Democratic-Republican whose landslide victory in 1816 accelerated the Federalist Party’s collapse. —Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Dec. 2024

That scant 3-point difference with Trump matches the average Democratic-Republican gap in the last eight presidential elections, of which Democrats won the popular vote in seven. —Gary Langer, ABC News, 3 Nov. 2024

The party differences against which Washington warned soon surfaced, and, after a contentious 1800 campaign, Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson unseated Adams. —Carl Leubsdorf, The Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2024

The president’s and Hamilton’s Federalist ideals win out, with Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican leanings pushed aside. —Tori Latham, Robb Report, 24 Sep. 2024

Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, and their Democratic-Republican and Federalist parties, battled out the idea war of their day in openly partisan gazettes. —Michael Watson, Baltimore Sun, 26 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1794, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Democratic-Republican

• publican

Kids Definition

Democratic-Republican

adjective

: of or relating to an early 19th century American political party preferring strict interpretation of the constitution and emphasizing states' rights