chumocracy
chumocracy noun: a form of oligarchy: government characterised by nepotism and the frequent appointment to public office of friends or those of similar social background to those in power.
Noun
chumocracy (countable and uncountable, plural chumocracies)
- A form of oligarchy: government characterised by nepotism and the frequent appointment to public office of friends or those of similar social background to those in power.
- How thrilling it would have been[…] if [Sadiq] Khan had denounced the [Thames garden] bridge in every way: […] as a symbol of the chummery – the chumocracy, even – that so offends the democratic and egalitarian traditions he is proud to represent.2016 May 21, Ian Jack, “This garden bridge is an oddity born of the chumocracy”, in The Guardian
- The sums are so vast, the secrecy so shocking, that “chumocracy” doesn’t begin to capture what Britain has become – redolent as we are of banana republics, the Russian oligarchy and failed states.2021 February 22, Polly Toynbee, “The Covid contracts furore is no surprise – Britain has long been a chumocracy”, in The Guardian
Forms of chumocracy
| plural | chumocracies |
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Origin of chumocracy
From chum + -ocracy.
Questions about chumocracy
- What does chumocracy mean?
- Chumocracy means a form of oligarchy: government characterised by nepotism and the frequent appointment to public office of friends or those of similar social background to those in power.
- What part of speech is chumocracy?
- Chumocracy is a noun.
- What is the plural of chumocracy?
- The plural of chumocracy is chumocracies.
Words near chumocracy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chumocracy (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:
Cite this entry: “chumocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chumocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.