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. State in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror
- n. 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
- dys- + (u)topia.
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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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 136 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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George Owell's works
pseudonym, Trotsky, Troskyist, apparatchik, purge, ostensible, gullibility, gullible, succumb, enamored, dystopia, nuzzle and 5 more...
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Always forget
lackadasical, salubrious, dystopia, ostenisbly, ostensible, diaspora
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