despotism

English

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despotism

Wikipedia

Etymology

From French despotisme; equivalent to despot +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛspətɪzəm/

• Audio (US):

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Noun

despotism (countable and uncountable, plural despotisms)

1. 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.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 136:

     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.

   • 1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 4:50 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington"‎, Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020:

     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?

Synonyms

• absolutism
• autocracy
• dictatorship
• tyranny

 

Hyponyms

• absolute monarchy
• benevolent absolutism
• enlightened absolutism
• enlightened despotism

 

Derived terms

• enlightened despotism

 

Related terms

• despot
• despotate
• despotic

Translations

government by a singular authority

Albanian: despotizëm (sq) m Arabic: اِسْتِبْدَاد (ar) m (istibdād), ظُلْم (ar) m (ẓulm) Armenian: բռնապետություն (hy) (bṙnapetutʻyun), բռնակալություն (hy) (bṙnakalutʻyun) Asturian: despotismu m Azerbaijani: despotizm, zülm (az), istibdad (az) Basque: despotismo Belarusian: дэспаты́зм m (despatýzm) Bulgarian: деспоти́зъм (bg) m (despotízǎm) Catalan: despotisme m Chinese: Cantonese: please add this translation if you can Mandarin: 專制／专制 (zh) (zhuānzhì), 專制主義／专制主义 (zh) (zhuānzhìzhǔyì), 獨裁／独裁 (zh) (dúcái), 暴政 (zh) (bàozhèng) Czech: despotismus m, despocie (cs) f Danish: despoti (da) n Dutch: despotisme (nl) n Esperanto: despotismo (eo) Estonian: despotism (et) Finnish: itsevaltius (fi) French: despotisme (fr) Galician: despotismo (gl) m Georgian: დესპოტიზმი (desṗoṭizmi) German: Despotie (de) f, Despotismus (de) m, Willkürherrschaft (de) f Greek: δεσποτισμός (el) m (despotismós) Hebrew: רוֹדָנוּת (he) f (rodanút) Hindi: तानाशाही (hi) f (tānāśāhī), स्वेच्छाचारिता (hi) (svecchācāritā) Hungarian: despotizmus (hu) Icelandic: harðstjórn f Ido: despoteso (io) Indonesian: despotisme (id), istibdad (id) Irish: forlámhas m, smachtúlacht f, tíorántacht f Italian: dispotismo (it) m Japanese: 専制 (ja) (せんせい, sensei), 独裁主義 (どくさいしゅぎ, dokusaishugi), 独裁 (ja) (どくさい, dokusai), 暴政 (ja) (ぼうせい, bōsei) Kazakh: деспотизм (despotizm) Khmer: please add this translation if you can Korean: 전제(專制) (ko) (jeonje), 독재(獨裁) (ko) (dokjae), 폭정(暴政) (ko) (pokjeong) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: istibdad (ku) Latin: despotismus m Latvian: despotisms m Lithuanian: despotizmas m Macedonian: деспоти́зам m (despotízam) Malay: despotisme Mingrelian: დესპოტიზმი (desṗoṭizmi) Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: despoti n Nynorsk: despoti n Ottoman Turkish: ظلم (zulm, zulüm) Persian: استبداد (fa) (estebdâd), ظلم (fa) (zolm) Polish: despotyzm (pl) m Portuguese: despotismo (pt) m Punjabi: ਧੱਕੇਸ਼ਾਹੀ (dhakkeśāhī) Romanian: despotism (ro) n Russian: деспоти́зм (ru) m (despotízm), произво́л (ru) m (proizvól), деспоти́я (ru) f (despotíja) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: деспотѝзам m Roman: despotìzam (sh) m Slovak: despotizmus m Slovene: despotizem m Spanish: despotismo (es) m Swedish: despoti c, despotism (sv) c Tajik: истибдод (istibdod), зулм (zulm) Thai: ระบบใช้อำนาจเด็ดขาด (rá-bòp chái am-nâat dèt kàat) Turkish: despotizm (tr), istibdat (tr) Ukrainian: деспоти́зм m (despotýzm) Urdu: اِسْتِبْدَاد (istibdād) Uzbek: despotiya (uz), istibdod (uz), zulm (uz) Volapük: däspot (vo)

Anagrams

• misposted

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French despotisme. By surface analysis, despot +‎ -ism.

Noun

despotism n (uncountable)

1. despotism

Declension

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) despotism	despotismul
genitive/dative	(unui) despotism	despotismului
vocative	despotismule

declension of despotism (singular only)