kakistocracy
Syllables: ka·kis·to·cra·cy/kækɪsˈtɒkɹəsi/US/kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/
kakistocracy noun: government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
Noun
kakistocracy (plural kakistocracies)
- Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
- Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against […] those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer...1644, Paul Gosnold, A sermon preached at the publique fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644 at St. Maries, Oxford, Early English Books Online
- The people lived in darkness and vassalage. […] they were utterly destitute of the blessing of those "schools for all," the house of correction, and the treadmill, wherein the autochthonal justice of our agrestic kakistocracy now castigates the heinous sins which were then committed with impunity...1829, [Thomas Love Peacock], “The Education of Taliesin”, in The Misfortunes of Elphin, London: Published by Thomas Hookham, Old Bond Street, →OCLC, pages 92–93
kakistocracy meaning in Tamil and Thai
kakistocracy in Tamil
- தகுதியிலார் ஆட்சி
kakistocracy in Thai
- government by the worst citizens
- ทรชนาธิปไตย tɔɔ-rá-chá-naa-tí-bpà-dtai
Examples of kakistocracy in a sentence
- Is ours a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?1876 January 19, James Russell Lowell, “To Joel Benton”, in Charles Eliot Norton, editor, Letters of James Russell Lowell, volume II, part...
- Thus, the problem was not whether corruption/power abuse was allowed, but how to keep a balance between uprightness and kakistocracy.1999, Gang Deng, “Trinary Structure: Origin, Tension and Equilibrium”, in The Premodern Chinese Economy: Structural Equilibrium and...
- Some nation-states have suffered what the Greeks called kakistocracy—government by the worst of men.2000, Tom H. Hastings, Ecology of War & Peace: Counting the Cost of Conflict, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 101:
- As we step into this world—as we enter the age of kakistocracy—we should remember one thing.2016 November 18, Jamelle Bouie, “Government by the worst men”, in Slate, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2017:
Forms of kakistocracy
| plural | kakistocracies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | cacistocracy |
Origin of kakistocracy
From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -cracy). The word was used, perhaps re-coined, by the English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) in his 1829 novella The Misfortunes of Elphin as the opposite of aristocracy (see second quotation).
Words formed from kakistocracy
Questions about kakistocracy
- What does kakistocracy mean?
- Kakistocracy means government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
- What is kakistocracy in Tamil?
- Kakistocracy in Tamil is தகுதியிலார் ஆட்சி. See Kakistocracy meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use kakistocracy in a sentence?
- Is ours a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?
- What part of speech is kakistocracy?
- Kakistocracy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce kakistocracy?
- Kakistocracy is pronounced /kækɪsˈtɒkɹəsi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of kakistocracy?
- The plural of kakistocracy is kakistocracies.
Words near kakistocracy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kakistocracy (page history and authors); kakistocracy (Tamil 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kakistocracy.wav.
Cite this entry: “kakistocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kakistocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.