as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
a revolution that only ended up replacing one dictatorship with another
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Recent Examples of dictatorship
There is no dispute that Maduro’s dictatorship led to Venezuela’s catastrophic collapse.
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Monica Duffy Toft, Fortune, 5 Jan. 2026
Its leaders and activists have tried and failed to bring down the dictatorship by many other means in the nearly 13 years since Maduro succeeded the far more charismatic Chávez as Venezuela’s strongman.
—Gisela Salim-Peyer, The Atlantic, 5 Jan. 2026
Anything is possible with a regime in charge that’s sort of like a dictatorship.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 4 Jan. 2026
Stripping work authorization from our neighbors weakens our community and forces families back into the arms of a dictatorship.
—Elijah Manley, Sun Sentinel, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for dictatorship
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dictatorship
Noun
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Continue reading … 'HISTORIC DAY' – Venezuelan opposition leader celebrates January 3 as 'day that justice defeated tyranny' after Maduro capture.—
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In the past, a popular uprising or a coup could bring tyranny to an end.—
Noun
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Europe was collapsing under fascism.—
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This is likewise the thrust of Salò, based on the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, an orgiastic, disturbing carnival of torture, rape, and killing, reset by Pasolini in the town from which fascism reigned in the 1940s.—
Noun
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The time has come to stop this slippery slope to autocracy, restoring our democracy and reaffirming the core values upon which our country was built and persevered.—
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There’s a very strong correlation with the rise of autocracy and human-rights abuses and bad governance and the increase in anti-American discourse.—
Noun
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The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it.—
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These achievements made the United States the political model of the liberal state, which displaced the monarchical dynasties of Europe in the nineteenth century, then rescued Western civilization from the totalitarian despotisms of Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union in the twentieth.—
Cite this Entry
“Dictatorship.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dictatorship. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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