dictatorship

[dik-tey-ter-ship, dik-tey-]

noun

1. a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.

2. absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.

3. the office or position held by a dictator.

dictatorship

/ dɪkˈteɪtəˌʃɪp /

noun

1. the rank, office, or period of rule of a dictator

2. government by a dictator or dictators

3. a country ruled by a dictator or dictators

4. absolute or supreme power or authority

dictatorship

1. Government by a single person or by a junta or other group that is not responsible to the people or their elected representatives.

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were dictators.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dictatorship¹

First recorded in 1580–90; dictator + -ship

Example Sentences

“Although local officials have raised cries of a federal ‘occupation’ and ‘dictatorship,’ the Constitution places on the president the duty to ‘take care that the laws are faithfully executed.’

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"But he's co-opted the Venezuelan opposition's language of how this is not just a dictatorship - it's a criminal regime."

Read more on BBC

Spain had just emerged from a decades-long dictatorship that ended with the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975, and consumers were hungry for more modern clothes.

Read more on Barron's

The dissident said that following his re-arrest "the cruelty of the dictatorship towards me has known no bounds".

Read more on BBC

Under international pressure, the dictatorship finally released him and a small number of others who stayed in Cuba.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• authoritarianism www.thesaurus.com
• autocracy 
• totalitarianism 
• tyranny