authoritarian

[ uh-thawr-i-tair-ee-uhn, uh-thor- ]

adjective

1. favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom:

   authoritarian principles; authoritarian attitudes.

2. of or relating to a governmental or political system, principle, or practice in which individual freedom is held as completely subordinate to the power or authority of the state, centered either in one person or a small group that is not constitutionally accountable to the people.
3. exercising complete or almost complete control over the will of another or of others:

   an authoritarian parent.

noun

1. a person who favors or acts according to authoritarian principles.

authoritarian

/ ɔːˌθɒrɪˈtɛərɪən /

adjective

1. favouring, denoting, or characterized by strict obedience to authority
2. favouring, denoting, or relating to government by a small elite with wide powers
3. despotic; dictatorial; domineering

noun

1. a person who favours or practises authoritarian policies

Derived Forms

• auˌthoriˈtarianism, noun

Other Words From

• au·thori·tari·an·ism noun
• anti·au·thori·tari·an adjective
• anti·au·thori·tari·an·ism noun
• nonau·thori·tari·an adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of authoritarian¹

First recorded in 1875–80; authorit(y) + -arian

Example Sentences

A classic attribute of authoritarian revolutionary movements is that they direct their greatest fury at dissenters within their own ranks, then, once they can, at allies who are insufficiently compliant with the leader’s commands.

From Slate

After years of increasingly authoritarian rule under Georgian Dream, it was widely considered the most crucial vote since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

From BBC

In 2017, when she was still a Democratic member of Congress, Tulsi Gabbard traveled to Syria and met the country’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad.

From New York Times

Central to Trump and his agents’ plans to impose their authoritarian vision on American society is Nazi legal theorist and jurist Carl Schmitt’s concept of a state of exception and the distinction between “friend and enemy” in a permanent state of emergency where the ruler, i.e.

From Salon

The exercises demonstrated repeatedly that an authoritarian in control of the executive branch with little concern for legal limits holds a structural advantage over any lawful effort to restrain him.

From Salon

Related Words

• autocrat
• disciplinarian