Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Government by the worst men in the state: opposed to aristocracy, government by the best men.
Wiktionary
- n. Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Government by the worst men.
Etymologies
- Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kakistos, "worst"), superlative of κακος (kakos, "bad") + -κρατια (-kratia, "power, rule, government"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad; see caco- + -cracy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word kakistocracy, meaning "government by the worst citizens," is "a word worth remembering," he quips.”
“Why must we be ruled by a "kakistocracy" -- a government by the worst citizens?”
“Steve Bell's Gordon as a big baby in a pooh-filled nappy may well have created the perfect image of the "kakistocracy"...”
“After seven years of murder, mayhem and kakistocracy I am voting for ABR (Any But Republicans) this November.”
“That, if FMD is shown to have escaped because of flooding, will be a most grave matter which will undoubtedly redound on this Labour kakistocracy.”
“There's a website getyourkidtovote. com that encourages parents to send kakistocracy tee shirts to their college age kids to remind them and their classmates of the stakes in this election and to encourage them to vote.”
“The American poet James Russell Lowell wrote in a letter in 1876: "Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”
“An example of nepotism that is poisoning us by Bucky the Commoner on Monday, Jul 14, 2008 at 10: 04: 25 AM from meritocracy to kakistocracy by Levon on Monday, Jul 14, 2008 at 10: 14: 26 AM”
“Whatever the depredations of the Bush kakistocracy, we are quite a ways (though not as far as we used to be) from a fascist dictatorship.”
“As we learned from the Madison girl in the spelling bee, the word being sought after by that author was "kakistocracy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kakistocracy’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
acolyte, archrival, backhander, backlash, baksheesh, bashing, boo, bribery, cadre, chicanery, clash, coercion and 256 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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phrontistery - k
from phrontistery.info
kainotophobia, kaiserin, kakidrosis, kakistocracy, kakorrhaphiophobia, kalamkari, kaleidophone, kalology, kalon, kalpis, kalyptra, kame and 189 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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word list
abligurition, humectant, absterge, dactylonomy, agamous, olecranon, geosmin, sphallolalia, aquiline, obloquy, quiescent, fother and 17 more...
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Uncommon words for common occurances
Weird terms and holophrases for various conditions, circumstances, and pursuits of quotidian life
aegrotat, kakistocracy, kerdomeletia, oniochalasia, adoxography, belaud, schadenfreude, hygeiolatry, limen, jamais, lypophrenia, potvaliant and 7 more...
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Forms of government
tyranny, tribal, totalitarianism, timocracy, theocracy, thallassocracy, cyberocracy, technocracy, sociocracy, socialist state, republic, puppet state and 37 more...
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-cracy
denoting a form of government or rule
democracy, autocracy, meritocracy, plutocracy, theocracy, gynecocracy, hagiocracy, bureaucracy, isocracy, idiocracy, kakistocracy
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Forms of Government
A handful of -ocracies.
adhocracy, androcracy, aristocracy, autocracy, cleptocracy, corpocracy, democracy, ethnocracy, gerontocracy, gynecocracy, gyneocracy, gynocracy and 31 more...
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Miscellaneous
‽, ☤, mandelbrot, angora rabbit, psychrolutes marc..., vampyroteuthis in..., basking shark, mano de desierto, underwater sculpt..., surgical dining, gyroscope, Derinkuyu and 161 more...
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POL - HU political issues
Hungary in the English-speaking press 2010-2013. Topical words and expressions.
collectivised pri..., controversial pac..., exclusion of unma..., forced labor, forced path of li..., former governor o..., frustrations born..., gay-hater, generous governme..., genuine economic ..., go public with Je..., golden generation and 538 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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known words
words wot i already knew
antisyzygy, calenture, shill, saudade, sehnsucht, squonk, steganographic, anomie, wiggy, grok, hermeneutics, agrise and 206 more...
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via Weird and Wonderful Words
Catch-all for things culled from Weird and Wonderful Words, More Weird and Wonderful Words, and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, by Erin McKean, et al.
aboulia, alexiteric, angletouch, dactylion, alveary, sparlire, glabella, philtrum, pallium, heart-spoon, hyperprosexia, paraprosexia and 438 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 339 more...
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Niels's Words
bien-pensant, pro re nata, zeitgeist, naïve, quod erat demonst..., dramastic, mélange, amanuensis, heuristic, hermeneutic, gist, gumption and 157 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kakistocracy.
yarb Citation on thurible. Jun 19, 2009
machiavelli Kakistocracy (n): what we have now (if you are not a member of the ruling party). Nov 3, 2008
machiavelli Kakistocracy (n): what we have now (if you are not a member of the ruling party). Nov 3, 2008
frindley Word: kakistocracy. Definition: The government of a state by the worst citizens. A very useful word!
(Helen Collins, London, England) Oct 15, 2008