tyrant
Syllables: ty·rant/ˈtaɪɹənt/
tyrant noun: a usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
Noun
tyrant (plural tyrants)
- A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
- To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- The reappearance of tyranny [in the 4th century BC] had many reasons... one of the main causes was the development of antagonism between rich and poor; tyrants came to power exploiting a social and political imbalance within the state.1980, Michel Austin et al., Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece, section 142
- Any monarch or governor.
- Cassius... set tyrants over all Syria.1737, William Whiston translating Josephus, History of the Jewish Wars, I xii §2
- A despot; a ruler who governs unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
- Tyrannes...be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them.1587, Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion, translating Philippe De Mornay, XII 196
- I am the Sonne of Marcus Cato, hoe.
A Foe to Tyrants, and my Countries Friend.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Any person who abuses the power of position or office to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
- A plague vpon the Tyrant that I serue1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- […] a sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are.1817, Mary Mitford in Alfred L'Estrange, The life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870), II i 2
- A villain; a person or thing who uses strength or violence to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
- I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, :[13]
- A pike (called the tyranne of fishes).1528, Thomas Paynell translating Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni
- The tyrant birds, members of the family Tyrannidae, which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests.
- The Tyrant... The courage of this little Bird is singular.1731, Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, I 55
- The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulae) are spread over the whole of America, where they represent the true flycatcher... The tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation.c. 1841, Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia, XXI 415 2
- Synonyms:
- tyrant bird, tyrant flycatcher, tyrant shrike, king bird, bee martin
Adjective
tyrant
- Tyrannical, tyrannous; like, characteristic of, or in the manner of a tyrant.
- He was most tirant & cruell of all emperours.c. 1530, John Rastell, Pastyme of People
- Thus must I from the smoake into the smother,
From tyrant Duke, vnto a tyrant Brother.c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
Verb
tyrant (third-person singular simple present tyrants, present participle tyranting, simple past and past participle tyranted)
- To act like a tyrant; to be tyrannical.
- Let thy judgment be king, but not tyrant over ita. 1661, Thomas Fuller, Of Fancy
- To tyrannize.
tyrant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tyrant in Hindi
- harsh and cruel ruler
- अधिनायक adhināyak
tyrant in Tamil
- அடக்குமுறையாளர், கொடுங்கோலன்
tyrant in Urdu
- tyrant
- تاناشاہ tānāśāh
tyrant in Bengali
- অত্যাচারী, স্বৈরাচারী
More languagesFewer languages
- tyrant in Telugu
- నిరంకుశుడు
- tyrant in Malayalam
- സ്വേച്ഛാധിപതി, ഉഗ്രശാസനൻ, ഉഗ്രനാടുവാഴി
- tyrant in Arabic
- طَاغِيَة ṭāḡiya
- tyrant in Persian
- ساستا sâstâ, دشخدای došxodāy
- tyrant in Vietnamese
- bạo chúa
Examples of tyrant in a sentence
- How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
- Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.1847, A. Helps, Friends in Council, I viii 132:
- Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to...the King-bird..., but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown...as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.1895, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds:
- ...a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies.1775, Abigail Adams, letter in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution (1876), 124
Synonyms of tyrant
- archon
- basileus
- aisymnetes
- autocrat
- dictator
- despot
- martinet
- tyrant bird
- tyrant flycatcher
- tyrant shrike
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- king bird
- bee martin
Forms of tyrant
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tyrants |
| alternative form (obsolete) | tyran |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tyrants |
| present participle | tyranting |
| past participle | tyranted |
| past | tyranted |
Origin of tyrant
From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin.
Words formed from tyrant
- anarchotyrant
- black-backed water tyrant
- chat-tyrant
- ground tyrant
- prototyrant
- pygmy tyrant
- shrike-tyrant
- streamer-tailed tyrant
- tit-tyrant
- tody-tyrant
- tyrancy
- tyrant-air
- tyrant-bird
- tyrant-chat
- tyrant-craft
- tyrantess
- tyrant-fish
- tyrant flycatcher
- tyrant-hater
- tyrant-hating
- tyranthood
- tyrant-killer
- tyrant-killing
- tyrant-kind
- tyrantless
- tyrantlike
- tyrant-manakin
- tyrant-murder
- Tyrant period
- tyrant-queller
- tyrant-quelling
- tyrant-ridden
- tyrant-scouraging
- tyrant-shrike
- tyrant-slayer
- tyrant-tamer
- tyrant-wren
- undertyrant
- wagtail-tyrant
Phrases with tyrant
Questions about tyrant
- What does tyrant mean?
- Tyrant means a usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
- What is tyrant in Hindi?
- Tyrant in Hindi is अधिनायक (adhināyak). See Tyrant meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use tyrant in a sentence?
- How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?
- What part of speech is tyrant?
- Tyrant can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tyrant?
- Tyrant is pronounced /ˈtaɪɹənt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tyrant?
- The plural of tyrant is tyrants.
Words near tyrant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tyrant (page history and authors); tyrant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تاناشاہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); tyrant (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tyrant (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tyrant (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tyrant.wav.
Cite this entry: “tyrant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tyrant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.