benevolent dictator for life
benevolent dictator for life noun: the leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.
Noun
benevolent dictator for life (plural benevolent dictators for life)
- The leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.
Forms of benevolent dictator for life
| plural | benevolent dictators for life |
|---|
Origin of benevolent dictator for life
Originally applied to Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, in an email from 1995. According to van Rossum, coined likely by either Ken Manheimer or Barry Warsaw.
Questions about benevolent dictator for life
- What does benevolent dictator for life mean?
- Benevolent dictator for life means the leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.
- What part of speech is benevolent dictator for life?
- Benevolent dictator for life is a noun.
- What is the plural of benevolent dictator for life?
- The plural of benevolent dictator for life is benevolent dictators for life.
Words near benevolent dictator for life in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: benevolent dictator for life (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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