4 results for: totalitarian

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

to·tal·i·tar·i·an

Audio Help [toh-tal-i-tair-ee-uh

–adjective

1.	of or pertaining to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.

2.	exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.

–noun

3.	an adherent of totalitarianism.

[Origin: 1925–30; totalit(y) + -arian

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
totalitarian

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

to·tal·i·tar·i·an Audio Help   (tō-tāl'ĭ-târ'ē-ən) Pronunciation Key
adj.   Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed: "A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)

n.   A practitioner or supporter of such a government.

[total + (author)itarian.]

to·tal'i·tar'i·an·ism n.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
totalitarian (adj.)

1926, first in ref. to Italian fascism, formed in Eng. on model of It. totalitario "complete, absolute, totalitarian," from the It. cognate of Eng. total (q.v.). The noun is recorded from 1938.

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