autocracy
/ɔːˈtɒkɹəsi/
autocracy noun: a form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.
Noun
autocracy (countable and uncountable, plural autocracies)
- A form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.
- I want to be clear: This shift toward democracy and away from autocracy is no reason to break out the “mission accomplished” banner.2022 December 1, John Avlon, “Opinion: The tide is turning against autocracy”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2024
- An instance of this government.
- The will of the people of Ukraine to defend their democracy is a reminder that autocracies cannot ultimately overcome free people willing to defend their liberty.2022 December 1, John Avlon, “Opinion: The tide is turning against autocracy”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2024
- Among those who study authoritarian regimes, a consensus has emerged that [US president Donald Trump's] early moves display common characteristics of burgeoning autocracies.2025 May 9, Cameron Joseph, “They’ve watched democracies fail. They see it happening under Trump.”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 16 Jul 2025
autocracy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
autocracy in Hindi
- form of government
- एकतंत्र ektantra, निरंकुशता niraṅkuśtā
autocracy in Tamil
- வல்லாட்சி, வல்லாண்மை, தன்முனைப்பாட்சி, ஏகாதிபத்தியம்
autocracy in Urdu
- form of government
- شَخْصی حُکُومَت śaxsī hukūmat, اِسْتِبْداد istibdād, مُطْلَقُ ٱلْعَنانی mutlaqu l-'anānī
autocracy in Bengali
- form of government
- স্বৈরতন্ত্র śōirotontro
More languagesFewer languages
- autocracy in Malayalam
- സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യം
- autocracy in Kannada
- ಪಾಳೆಯಗಾರಿಕೆ, ಪಾಳೆಗಾರಿಕೆ, ನಿರಂಕುಶ ಪ್ರಭುತ್ವ, ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರತ್ವ
- autocracy in Pashto
- آټوکراسي oṭokrāsi, استبداد istibdād
- autocracy in Tagalog
- awtokrasya
- autocracy in Arabic
- أُوتُوقْرَاطِيَّة ʔutuqrāṭiyya, اِسْتِبْدَاد istibdād
- autocracy in Malay
- autokrasi
- autocracy in Indonesian
- autokrasi, otokrasi
- autocracy in Thai
- อัตตาธิปไตย àt-dtaa-tí-bpà-dtai, เอกาธิปไตย ee-gaa-tí-bpà-dtai
- autocracy in Vietnamese
- chế độ chuyên quyền
- autocracy in Myanmar
- အော်တိုကရေစီ autuika.reci
- Kashmiri
- شَخصی حۆکوٗمَتھ śakhsī hokūmath
Examples of autocracy in a sentence
- The efforts of others, including Poland, are highlighted for attempting to “U-turn” away from autocracy.
- Hungary has effectively become a one-party autocracy, ruled by an ethnonationalist ideology.
- Indeed, we take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.
Synonyms of autocracy
Forms of autocracy
| plural | autocracies |
|---|
Origin of autocracy
From auto- + -cracy, from Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατία (autokratía, “A system of government by one person with absolute power.”), from αὐτός (autós, “single, self, same, alone”) + κράτος (krátos, “power”) + -ία (-ía, “feminine abstract nouns suffix”); see also Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατής (autokratḗs, “one who governs alone”).
Words formed from autocracy
Words that rhyme with autocracy
- democracy
- bureaucracy
- aristocracy
- corpocracy
- critocracy
- czarocracy
- demonocracy
- dollarocracy
- hierocracy
- idiocracy
- pornocracy
- thalassocracy
38 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- adhocracy
- albocracy
- algocracy
- Americanocracy
- androcracy
- argentocracy
- arithmocracy
- atheocracy
- athletocracy
- blobocracy
- boobocracy
- chirocracy
- chrysocracy
- clericocracy
- clerocracy
- corporatocracy
- corruptocracy
- cosmocracy
- cottonocracy
- cryptocracy
- cyberocracy
- demagocracy
- despotocracy
- ecclesiocracy
- ecocracy
- economocracy
- elitocracy
- ephebocracy
- familiocracy
- foolocracy
- geniocracy
- ideocracy
- idiocrasy
- infantocracy
- kludgeocracy
- mediocracy
- merocracy
- xerocracy
Questions about autocracy
- What does autocracy mean?
- Autocracy means a form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.
- What is autocracy in Hindi?
- Autocracy in Hindi is एकतंत्र (ektantra), निरंकुशता (niraṅkuśtā). See Autocracy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is autocracy?
- Autocracy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce autocracy?
- Autocracy is pronounced /ɔːˈtɒkɹəsi/.
- What is the plural of autocracy?
- The plural of autocracy is autocracies.
Words near autocracy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: autocracy (page history and authors); autocracy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); autocracy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); autocracy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-autocracy.wav.
Cite this entry: “autocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/autocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.