despot
UK/ˈdɛs.pɒt/US/ˈdɛs.pət/
despot noun: a ruler with absolute power; a tyrant.
Noun
despot (plural despots)
- A ruler with absolute power; a tyrant.
- The Red Holocaust is best interpreted in this light as the bitter fruit of an^([sic]) utopian gambit that was socially misengineered into a dystopic nightmare by despots in humanitarian disguise.2009, Steven Rosefielde, Red Holocaust, page 240
- A title awarded to senior members of the imperial family in the late Byzantine Empire, and claimed by various independent or semi-autonomous rulers in the Balkans (12th to 15th centuries)
despot meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
despot in Hindi
- ruler with absolute power; tyrant
- अधिनायक adhināyak
despot in Tamil
- கொடுங்கோலன், எதேச்சாதிகாரி, ஏகாதிபதி, சக்கராதிபதி
despot in Urdu
- despot
- تاناشاہ tānāśāh
despot in Malayalam
- സ്വേച്ഛാധിപതി, സമ്രാട്ട്, ചക്രവർത്തി
More languagesFewer languages
- despot in Kannada
- ನಿರಂಕುಶ, ನಿರಂಕುಶ ಪ್ರಭು
- despot in Arabic
- طَاغٍ ṭāḡin, الطَاغِي aṭ-ṭāḡī, مُسْتَبِدّ mustabidd, ظَالِم ẓālim
- despot in Persian
- مستبد mostabedd
- despot in Thai
- ทรราช tɔɔ-rá-râat
- despot in Vietnamese
- bạo quân, bá vương
Forms of despot
| plural | despots |
|---|
Origin of despot
From Middle French despote, from Old French despote, from Medieval Latin despota, from Ancient Greek δεσπότης (despótēs, “lord, master, owner”). Cognate with Sanskrit दम्पति (dámpati).
Words formed from despot
Questions about despot
- What does despot mean?
- Despot means a ruler with absolute power; a tyrant.
- What is despot in Hindi?
- Despot in Hindi is अधिनायक (adhināyak). See Despot meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is despot?
- Despot is a noun.
- How do you pronounce despot?
- Despot is pronounced /ˈdɛs.pɒt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of despot?
- The plural of despot is despots.
Words near despot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: despot (page history and authors); despot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تاناشاہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); despot (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); despot (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: En-ca-despot-2.oga.
Cite this entry: “despot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/despot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.