authoritarian
/ɔːˌθɒɹ.ɪˈtɛə̯.ɹɪən//əˌθɔɹ.əˈtɛɹ.i.ən/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
authoritarian adjective: of, or relating to, or exhibiting strict obedience to an authority; favoring authoritarianism over civic and individual liberties.
Adjective
authoritarian (comparative more authoritarian, superlative most authoritarian)
- Of, or relating to, or exhibiting strict obedience to an authority; favoring authoritarianism over civic and individual liberties.
- the authoritarian personality
- Demanding obedience to authority; marked by authoritarianism; dictatorial, tyrannical.
- The authoritarian government was demanding stricter laws for low-wage peasants.
- Una rivoluzione è certamente la cosa più autoritaria che ci sia: è l'atto per il quale una parte della popolazione impone la sua volontà all'altra parte per mezzo di fucili, baionette e cannoni; mezzi autoritari, se ce ne sono; e il partito vittorioso, se non vuole aver combattuto invano, deve...1873 December [1872], Friedrich Engels, “Dell'autorità”, in Almanacco repubblicano per l'anno 1874; translated into English as “On Authority”, in Marx/Engels Collected Works, volume 23, translation...
- Synonyms:
- bossy
- Tending to impose one's demands upon others as if one were an authority.
- Synonyms:
- arrogant, commanding, haughty, imperious
Noun
authoritarian (plural authoritarians)
- One who commands absolute obedience to his or her authority.
- The dictator was an authoritarian.
- Trump may be a Schmittian by instinct and aspiration, but he’s a fair-weather Schmittian only. A true authoritarian, confronted by limits on his power, might have ripped through them in service of establishing his authority.2020 April 14, Quinta Jurecic, Benjamin Wittes, “Being an Actual Authoritarian Is Too Much Work for Trump”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2020
- One who follows and is excessively obedient to authority.
authoritarian meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
authoritarian in Hindi
- अधिनायकवादी, सत्तावादी
authoritarian in Marathi
- अधिनायकवादी
authoritarian in Urdu
- of, or relating to, absolute obedience to an authority
- آمِراَنہ
authoritarian in Bengali
- কর্তৃত্ববাদী
More languagesFewer languages
- authoritarian in Malayalam
- ഏകാധിപത്യസ്വഭാവമുള്ള, അധികാരികളെ അനുസരിക്കണമെന്നു ശഠിക്കുന്ന, സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യസ്വഭാവമുള്ള, ഏകശാസകനായ
- authoritarian in Kannada
- ಅಧಿಕಾರಷಾಹಿಯಾದ, ನಿರಂಕುಶ, ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರದ
- authoritarian in Gujarati
- સત્તાવાદી
- authoritarian in Odia
- ଏକଛତ୍ରବାଦୀ
- authoritarian in Nepali
- अधिनायकवादी, सत्तावादी
- authoritarian in Arabic
- سُلْطَوِيّ sulṭawiyy, اِسْتِبْدَادِيّ istibdādiyy, مُتَسَلِّط mutasalliṭ, مُسْتَبِدّ mustabidd
- authoritarian in Indonesian
- otoriter
- authoritarian in Persian
- اقتدارگرا eqtedârgerâ
- authoritarian in Vietnamese
- chuyên chế, quyền uy
Examples of authoritarian in a sentence
- […] (selling one’s personal activity under another’s direction and supervision encourages dependency and authoritarian relationships);[…]1981 May 1, Samuel Edward Konkin III, “Reply to Rothbard”, in Strategy of the New Libertarian Alliance, number 1:
- It may be that precisely due to its weak nature, an authoritarian dictatorship needs rampant violence and lies to maintain its rule.2020 March 14, Shixin, “What Did the Sudden Fall of the Berlin Wall Tell Us?”, in Minghui, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2025:
- Democratic countries should clearly recognize and unify against the challenge of authoritarian intervention.2022, “September 25, 2022”, in Mainland Affairs Council, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2023, Chronology:
- And, of course, there are fewer Nimbys in an authoritarian state.2025 April 16, Christian Wolmar, “Hugely impressed by China's high-speed rail network”, in RAIL, number 1033, page 42:
Synonyms of authoritarian
Antonyms
Forms of authoritarian
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more authoritarian |
| superlative | most authoritarian |
| Noun | |
| plural | authoritarians |
Origin of authoritarian
From authority + -arian, circa 1880.
Words formed from authoritarian
Phrases with authoritarian
Questions about authoritarian
- What does authoritarian mean?
- Authoritarian means of, or relating to, or exhibiting strict obedience to an authority; favoring authoritarianism over civic and individual liberties.
- What is authoritarian in Hindi?
- Authoritarian in Hindi is अधिनायकवादी, सत्तावादी. See Authoritarian meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use authoritarian in a sentence?
- […] (selling one’s personal activity under another’s direction and supervision encourages dependency and authoritarian relationships);[…]
- What part of speech is authoritarian?
- Authoritarian can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce authoritarian?
- Authoritarian is pronounced /ɔːˌθɒɹ.ɪˈtɛə̯.ɹɪən/ (UK).
Words near authoritarian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: authoritarian (page history and authors); authoritarian (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); authoritarian (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); authoritarian (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); authoritarian (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); authoritarian (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); authoritarian (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); authoritarian (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); authoritarian (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Rho9998-authoritarian.wav, en-us-authoritarian.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-authoritarian.wav.
Cite this entry: “authoritarian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/authoritarian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.