as in dictatorship
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
a popular uprising replaced that nation's tyranny with freedom and democracy
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tyranny
Lee and his friends rejected the intellectuals and politicians who lionized or apologized for communist tyranny.
—
Matthew Continetti, National Review, 21 Dec. 2024
The tyranny of the urgent can make concerns about potential cyber events a distant thought, fading into the background in the face of a concrete deadline.
—Lars Daniel, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
Annotated Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
—JSTOR Daily, 8 Jan. 2025
Transferring that depth to television, particularly to predominantly Black characters in a Caribbean country, especially one as fabled as Jamaica, to confront the tyranny of homophobia while also sustaining a conversation with the U.K. about its tainted legacy of colonialism, is bold and visionary.
—Ronda Racha Penrice, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for tyranny 
Matthew Continetti, National Review, 21 Dec. 2024
The tyranny of the urgent can make concerns about potential cyber events a distant thought, fading into the background in the face of a concrete deadline.
—Lars Daniel, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
Annotated Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
—JSTOR Daily, 8 Jan. 2025
Transferring that depth to television, particularly to predominantly Black characters in a Caribbean country, especially one as fabled as Jamaica, to confront the tyranny of homophobia while also sustaining a conversation with the U.K. about its tainted legacy of colonialism, is bold and visionary.
—Ronda Racha Penrice, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for tyranny
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tyranny
Noun
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During the third year of his sentence, he's placed in a cell with Valentin (Diego Luna), a revolutionary who is vital to the fight against Argentina's military dictatorship.—
Ryan Coleman,
EW.com,
27 Jan. 2025
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And ultimately, South Koreans may decide the time has come to revise the constitution, written in 1948 under U.S. military occupation and last revised in 1987 under military dictatorship.—
John Delury,
Foreign Affairs,
27 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Hepburn’s hatred of fascism and the Nazis was especially resonant to people on Reddit.—
Martha Ross,
The Mercury News,
24 Jan. 2025
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Reviewed by Andrew Moravcsik January/February 2025 Published on In This Review Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich By Richard J. Evans Save Who would support fascism today?—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
14 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Western governments have burdened Georgia with a special status as a democracy-in-the-making in a region otherwise beset by despotism.—
Christian Caryl,
Foreign Affairs,
26 Dec. 2024
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Although Adolf Hitler met his road to perdition, Joseph Stalin survived and extended his despotism.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
14 Mar. 2024
Noun
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Washington’s traditional impulse to divide the world into democracies and autocracies obscures a global turn toward nationalism that began with the 2008 financial crisis and led to protectionism, hardening borders, and shrinking growth in many parts of the world.—
Michael Brenes,
Foreign Affairs,
28 Jan. 2025
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His steadfast support for Ukraine and NATO expansion, at a time of creeping autocracy in Europe, was heroic.—
Douglas Brinkley,
CBS News,
19 Jan. 2025
Noun
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With the help of grants from Jewish groups, social psychologists, sociologists, and other scholars investigated how antisemitism was connected to totalitarianism, religion and other forms of racial and ethnic stereotyping.—
Asaf Elia-Shalev,
Sun Sentinel,
9 Jan. 2025
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This episode shows that—although China has never had a U.S.-style constitution—Beijing moved away from Maoist totalitarianism under Deng, thereby instilling a sense of security and confidence among Chinese entrepreneurs.—
Yasheng Huang,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Sep. 2023
Noun
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In our skies as in our social lives, incremental change, like ring rain, seems to work slowly, while acts of frightening absolutism seem to happen overnight.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
22 Dec. 2024
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In other words, the absolutism or the abolitionist approach to cutting out meat from our diet doesn’t work for a lot of people.—
Shalom Daniel,
Forbes,
19 Dec. 2024
Articles Related to tyranny
Thesaurus Entries Near tyranny
Cite this Entry
“Tyranny.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tyranny. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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