Word.ws English Dictionary

Gleichschaltung

Gleichschaltung noun: the forced standardization of political and social institutions under an authoritarian regime, originally with reference to Nazi Germany.

Noun

Gleichschaltung (countable and uncountable, plural Gleichschaltungs)

  1. The forced standardization of political and social institutions under an authoritarian regime, originally with reference to Nazi Germany.
    • Far less identified with the party than the old Freikorps (anticommunist vigilante groups active just after World War I) mercenaries, the new element saw in the SS the true elite organization of the Nazi regime, and did not hesitate to attempt Gleichschaltungs within the Gleichschaltung, that is...1973, Dietrich Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party: 1933–1945, volume 2, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 181
    • Consequently, Croatia’s new leaders have lost little time in purging these last outposts of the old regime. In the name of democracy and human rights, all the media will henceforth be sympathetic to the new government, a process of Gleichschaltung that is being cheered on by the West.2000 April 15, John Laughland, “Full circle for communism: Under EU plan, Croatia is starting to resemble old communist Yugoslavia”, in The Gazette, Montreal, page B5

Forms of Gleichschaltung

pluralGleichschaltungs

Origin of Gleichschaltung

Unadapted borrowing from German Gleichschaltung (“synchronisation”).

Questions about Gleichschaltung

What does Gleichschaltung mean?
Gleichschaltung means the forced standardization of political and social institutions under an authoritarian regime, originally with reference to Nazi Germany.
What part of speech is Gleichschaltung?
Gleichschaltung is a noun.
What is the plural of Gleichschaltung?
The plural of Gleichschaltung is Gleichschaltungs.

Words near Gleichschaltung in the dictionary

  1. Gleich's syndrome
  2. gleichenia
  3. gleicheniaceous
  4. gleichenias
  5. Gleichs
  6. Gleichschaltung
  7. Gleichschaltungs
  8. gleied
  9. Gleig
  10. gleiing
  11. Gleim

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gleichschaltung (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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Cite this entry: “Gleichschaltung.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gleichschaltung. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.