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autocracy - 4 dictionary results

au⋅toc⋅ra⋅cy

  [aw-tok-ruh-see]
Use autocracy in a Sentence
–noun, plural -cies.
1. government in which one person has uncontrolled or unlimited authority over others; the government or power of an absolute monarch.
2. a nation, state, or community ruled by an autocrat.
3. unlimited authority, power, or influence of one person in any group.
Origin:
1645–55; < Gk autokráteia power over oneself, sole power, equiv. to autokrat(s) autocrat + -eia -ia; see -cracy
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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au·toc·ra·cy   (ô-tŏk'rə-sē)   
n.   pl. au·toc·ra·cies
  1. Government by a single person having unlimited power; despotism.
  2. A country or state that is governed by a single person with unlimited power.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Autocracy

Au*toc"ra*cy\, n.; pl. Autocracies. [Gr. ?: cf. F. autocratie. See Autocrat.]

1. Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling authority; supremacy.

The divine will moves, not by the external impulse or inclination of objects, but determines itself by an absolute autocracy. --South.

2. Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.

3. Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a state); autonomy. --Barlow.

4. (Med.) The action of the vital principle, or of the instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the individual; also, the vital principle. [In this sense, written also autocrasy.] --Dunglison.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : autocracy
Spanish: autocracia,
German: die Autokratie,
Japanese: 独裁政治
More Translations »

autocracy [(aw-tok-ruh-see)]

A system of government in which supreme political power is held by one person. (Compare constitutional monarchy, democracy, and oligarchy.)

Note: Iraq under Saddam Hussein is an autocracy.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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