aretocracy
aretocracy noun: a form of governance or political organization in which authority or eligibility for public office is based on virtue, moral excellence, or demonstrated civic merit.
Noun
aretocracy (countable and uncountable, plural aretocracies)
- A form of governance or political organization in which authority or eligibility for public office is based on virtue, moral excellence, or demonstrated civic merit.
- It was a revolution, reader, a transition from republic to dictatorship in fifty years without a single drop of blood. Detractors call it a cult of charisma, but the Humanists themselves use aretocracy, rule by excellence.2016, Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning, →ISBN, page 150
Forms of aretocracy
| plural | aretocracies |
|---|
Origin of aretocracy
From arete (“virtue, excellence”) + -o- + -cracy, from Ancient Greek ἀρετή (aretḗ).
Questions about aretocracy
- What does aretocracy mean?
- Aretocracy means a form of governance or political organization in which authority or eligibility for public office is based on virtue, moral excellence, or demonstrated civic merit.
- What part of speech is aretocracy?
- Aretocracy is a noun.
- What is the plural of aretocracy?
- The plural of aretocracy is aretocracies.
Words near aretocracy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aretocracy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “aretocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aretocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.