Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.
- n. A work describing such a place or state: "dystopias such as Brave New World” ( Times Literary Supplement).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Malposition; dislocation.
Wiktionary
- n. A vision of a future that is a corrupted (usually beyond recognition) utopian society.
- n. A miserable, dysfunctional state or society that has a very poor standard of living.
- n. medicine Anatomical tissue that is not found in its usual place.
WordNet 3.0
- n. state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror
- n. a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror
Etymologies
- Coined from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus, "bad") + τόπος (topos, "place, region") on model of dys- + utopia (retaining stem, removing u- prefix). (Wiktionary)
- dys- + (u)topia. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“While the father can still remember pieces of a time before everything turned gray and lifeless, this dystopia is all the son has ever known.”
“I have recently decided that the dystopia is the only "true" form of futuristic sf left because any realistic assessment of the future based on the present must determine that the future is going to be bad.”
“As Owen Hatherley, a perceptive commentator on both Eno and Ballard, asks of Vermilion Sands: ‘could there be here a sort of affirmative retort to the insistence that all Modernist or utopian communities inevitably end up in dystopia?’”
“Your beautiful dystopia is well on its way under the direction of your dear leader.”
“The issue of the missing dystopia is only one of them (though, a not-inconsiderable one).”
“And dystopia is not a fashion statement, and it's not just window dressing, or the Cool New Flavor of the Week.”
“Since dystopia is going to be a theme on the next Blog Tour (featuring Broken Angel), I have added what I consider the greatest dystopia of all time, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.”
“Perhaps the war scene will be something like 'Black Hawk Down' set in dystopia Blade Runner ... but then again, Ridley have ways to surprise us in each of his movies.”
“Set in 2052, the game†™ s dystopia is caused by a new plague which hits humanity.”
“The opposite extreme of a Big Brother dystopia is not one that merely substitutes the gender of the antagonist (or protagonist); instead the mechanism of self-representation and self-actualization needs to be inverted.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dystopia’.
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 100 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - d
from phrontistery.info
dacnomania, dacoitage, dacryops, dactylioglyph, dactyliology, dactyliomancy, dactylogram, dactylography, dactyloid, dactylology, dactylomancy, dactylomegaly and 624 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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phony places
erewhon, bezerkistan, etchisketchistan, telmar, xanadu, atlantis, utopia, shangri-la, uqbar, lemuria, syldavia, borduria and 2 more...
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topias
Aristopia, Caltopia, photopia, scotopia, dystopia, heterotopia, ectopia, onychoheterotopia, trachymene incisa, splenectopia, tarsectopia, syndesmectopia and 2 more...
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not prime real estate
describing areas where the poor, unhomed and oppressed are found. Some of these didn't belong in miserable circumstances.
villa miseria, urban decay, urban blight, trailer park, township, tent city, Tenderloin, squalor, slurb, slum, skid row, sink of corruption and 35 more...
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George Owell's works
pseudonym, Trotsky, Troskyist, apparatchik, purge, ostensible, gullibility, gullible, succumb, enamored, dystopia, nuzzle and 5 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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The New Yorker
prejudice, ignominious, quintessence, disparity, vanguard, repudiated, eclectic, dredge, taxonomy, pugnacious, surreptitiously, pudgy and 113 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dystopia.
PossibleUnderscore Nineteen Eighty Four comes to mind. Jul 18, 2009
nuxiy Our future :( May 17, 2009
cranewang ...and America, it seemed, had become a strange dystopia, decadent and almost... May 11, 2008