theocrat

American  

[thee-uh-krat] / ˈθi əˌkræt /

noun

1. a person who rules, governs as a representative of God or a deity, or is a member of the ruling group in a theocracy, as a divine king or a high priest.

2. a person who favors theocracy.

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Etymology

Origin of theocrat

1820–30; back formation from theocratic < Greek theokrat ( ía ) theocracy + -ic

Example Sentences

The theocrat would express his distrust of the Americans, caution his emissaries to be vigilant, but then obliquely defend their efforts.

From The Wall Street Journal

But in the context of the story, Young comes off as a smooth-talking fanatic theocrat, his nearly every utterance sounding like a threat; one can imagine him animated as a Disney villain.

From Los Angeles Times

Penn had his faults; but a theocrat he never ever was.

From Salon

Joseph de Maistre was "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist ... always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism."

From Salon

His National Review co-founder and coauthor of a defense of Joseph McCarthy, L. Brent Bozell, even outdid Buckley in that department, being as ferocious a theocrat as Maistre had been more than a century earlier.

From Salon