ABSOLUTISM

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does absolutism mean? 

• ABSOLUTISM (noun)
  The noun ABSOLUTISM has 4 senses:

1. dominance through threat of punishment and violence

2. a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

3. the principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

4. the doctrine of an absolute being

  Familiarity information: ABSOLUTISM used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABSOLUTISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dominance through threat of punishment and violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

absolutism; despotism; tyranny

Hypernyms ("absolutism" is a kind of...):

ascendance; ascendancy; ascendence; ascendency; control; dominance (the state that exists when one person or group has power over another)

Derivation:

absolutist (one who advocates absolutism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

absolutism; authoritarianism; Caesarism; despotism; dictatorship; monocracy; one-man rule; shogunate; Stalinism; totalitarianism; tyranny

Hypernyms ("absolutism" is a kind of...):

autarchy; autocracy (a political system governed by a single individual)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "absolutism"):

police state (a country that maintains repressive control over the people by means of police (especially secret police))

Derivation:

absolutist (one who advocates absolutism)

absolutistic (pertaining to the principle of totalitarianism)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

absolutism; totalism; totalitarianism

Hypernyms ("absolutism" is a kind of...):

ideology; political orientation; political theory (an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation)

Derivation:

absolutist (one who advocates absolutism)

absolutistic (pertaining to the principle of totalitarianism)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The doctrine of an absolute being

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("absolutism" is a kind of...):

doctrine; ism; philosophical system; philosophy; school of thought (a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school)