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Definition of Despotism
1. Noun. Dominance through threat of punishment and violence.
Generic synonyms: Ascendance, Ascendancy, Ascendence, Ascendency, Control, Dominance
Derivative terms: Absolutist, Tyrannic, Tyrannical, Tyrannical
2. Noun. A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.).
Generic synonyms: Autarchy, Autocracy
Specialized synonyms: Police State
Derivative terms: Absolutist, Absolutistic, Dictator, Stalinist
Definition of Despotism
1. n. The power, spirit, or principles of a despot; absolute control over others; tyrannical sway; tyranny.
Definition of Despotism
1. Noun. government by a singular authority, either a single person or tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Despotism
1. [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Despotism
Literary usage of Despotism
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Ancient Times, a History of the Early World: An Introduction to the Study of by James Henry Breasted (1916)
"We are now first to examine that despotism and then to see how it was overwhelmed
... THE ROMAN EMPIRE AN ORIENTAL despotism The world which issued from the ..."
2. The Westminster Review by John Chapman, Charles William Wason (1903)
"BENEVOLENT despotism. ITS POPULAR DEFENCE. THE British Empire comprises some ...
Naked despotism is repugnant to him, but " benevolent" despotism—when ..."
3. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, Henry Reeve (1875)
"WHAT SORT OF despotism DEMOCRATIC NATIONS HAVE TO FEAR. I HAD remarked during my
stay in the United States, that a democratic state of society, ..."
4. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1891)
"We have credited tb» United States with possessing i latent despotism which ...
conclusion that the republican despotism is only employed as a selfish and ..."
5. The History of British India by James Mill, Horace Hayman Wilson (1858)
"The despotism and priestcraft of the system were, it seems, ... A despotism, he
says, limited by law ; as if a despotism limited by law were not a ..."
6. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1827)
"But the youth of Severus had been trained in the implicit obedience of camps,
and his riper years spent in the despotism of military command. ..."
7. The History of England by Thomas Keightley (1840)
"... giving no account of the expenditure, and arbitrarily punishing all who ventured
to murmur or oppose the civil and religious despotism now established. ..."
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