DESPOTISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does despotism mean? 

• DESPOTISM (noun)
  The noun DESPOTISM has 2 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.)

  Familiarity information: DESPOTISM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESPOTISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dominance through threat of punishment and violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

absolutism; despotism; tyranny

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

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

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 ("despotism" is a kind of...):

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

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

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

 Context examples 

I understood that, sitting there where I did, on the bank of heath, and with that handsome form before me, I sat at the feet of a man, caring as I. The veil fell from his hardness and despotism.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was kept, to be sure, rather cross and crusty; but on the whole I could see he was excellently entertained, and that a lamb-like submission and turtle-dove sensibility, while fostering his despotism more, would have pleased his judgment, satisfied his common-sense, and even suited his taste less.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)