despotism
/ˈdɛspətɪzəm/
despotism noun: government by a despot or despots: rule by a singular authority, either a single person or a tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.
Noun
despotism (countable and uncountable, plural despotisms)
- Government by a despot or despots: rule by a singular authority, either a single person or a tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.
- The iron hand of despotism has quenched the last spark of liberty; hunted down like a wild beast, I am watching an opportunity to fly my degraded and enslaved country.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 136
- But now events have proved that I was right because Khrushchev's grandchildren do live in freedom and the great question of our time: can they continue to live in freedom, or will they revert to the old, or a new despotism?1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 4:50 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington", Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020
- Synonyms:
- absolutism, autocracy, dictatorship, tyranny
despotism meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Punjabi
despotism in Hindi
- government by a singular authority
- तानाशाही tānāśāhī, स्वेच्छाचारिता svecchācāritā
despotism in Urdu
- government by a singular authority
- اِسْتِبْدَاد istibdād
despotism in Malayalam
- ഏകാധിപത്യം, സ്വേച്ഛാധിപത്യം, ഏകശാസനാധികാരം
despotism in Punjabi
- government by a singular authority
- ਧੱਕੇਸ਼ਾਹੀ dhakkeśāhī
More languagesFewer languages
- despotism in Arabic
- اِسْتِبْدَاد istibdād, ظُلْم ẓulm
- despotism in Malay
- despotisme
- despotism in Indonesian
- despotisme, istibdad
- despotism in Persian
- استبداد estebdâd, ظلم zolm
- despotism in Thai
- ระบบใช้อำนาจเด็ดขาด rá-bòp chái am-nâat dèt kàat
Synonyms of despotism
Forms of despotism
| plural | despotisms |
|---|
Origin of despotism
From French despotisme; equivalent to despot + -ism.
Words formed from despotism
Questions about despotism
- What does despotism mean?
- Despotism means government by a despot or despots: rule by a singular authority, either a single person or a tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.
- What is despotism in Hindi?
- Despotism in Hindi is तानाशाही (tānāśāhī), स्वेच्छाचारिता (svecchācāritā). See Despotism meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is despotism?
- Despotism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce despotism?
- Despotism is pronounced /ˈdɛspətɪzəm/.
- What is the plural of despotism?
- The plural of despotism is despotisms.
Words near despotism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: despotism (page history and authors); despotism (Malayalam 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-us-despotism.ogg.
Cite this entry: “despotism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/despotism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.