Word.ws English Dictionary

phobocracy

UK/fɪˈbɒk.ɹə.si/US/fɪˈbɑ.kɹə.si/

phobocracy noun: a system under which society is governed by fear; or a society of this kind.

Noun

phobocracy (usually uncountable, plural phobocracies)

  1. (usually) A system under which society is governed by fear; or a society of this kind.
    • Has international pressure has finally forced South Korea to abandon years of official apathy about the phobocracy that is North Korea?2006 June 20, Joshua, “The End of Sunshine?”, in Free Korea
    • The point of Obama's candidacy is that the damaged state of American democracy is not the fault of George W. Bush and his minions, the corporate-controlled media, the insurance industry, the oil industry, lobbyists, terrorists, illegal immigrants or Satan. The point is that this mess is our fault....2008 February 4, Michael Chabon, “Obama vs. the Phobocracy”, in Washington Post

Examples of phobocracy in a sentence

  • That is how a phobocracy maintains its grip on power.2008 February 4, Michael Chabon, “Obama vs. the Phobocracy”, in Washington Post:
  • I have named these four forms of intensive pseudonism: oligocracy, fiscocracy, mobocracy and phobocracy.2017, Peter Sloterdijk, “On Pseudonymous Politics: Regarding Implicit and Explicit Misconceptions of Democracy”, in Victoria Stiles...

Forms of phobocracy

pluralphobocracies

Origin of phobocracy

From phobo- (“fear”) + -cracy (“rule”).

Questions about phobocracy

What does phobocracy mean?
Phobocracy means a system under which society is governed by fear; or a society of this kind.
How do you use phobocracy in a sentence?
That is how a phobocracy maintains its grip on power.
What part of speech is phobocracy?
Phobocracy is a noun.
How do you pronounce phobocracy?
Phobocracy is pronounced /fɪˈbɒk.ɹə.si/ (UK).
What is the plural of phobocracy?
The plural of phobocracy is phobocracies.

Words near phobocracy in the dictionary

  1. phobists
  2. phobiæ
  3. Phobji
  4. phobo-
  5. phobocracies
  6. phobocracy
  7. phobocratic
  8. phobogenic
  9. phobophobia
  10. phoborhodopsin
  11. Phobos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phobocracy (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: “phobocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phobocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.