Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed: "A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul” ( Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
- n. A practitioner or supporter of such a government.
Wiktionary
- adj. A system of government where the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control of every aspect of the country, socially, financially and politically.
- n. An advocate of totalitarianism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an adherent of totalitarian principles or totalitarian government
- adj. characterized by a government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control
- adj. of or relating to the principles of totalitarianism according to which the state regulates every realm of life
Etymologies
- From Italian totalitario ("complete, absolute, totalitarian") + -an (Wiktionary)
- total + (author)itarian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely.”
“As a sometime teacher of law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely.”
WN.com - Articles related to School summit: Homeless children deserve an education, too
“The word "totalitarian," on the other hand, describes a kind of finished system, one operating according to fixed rules.”
“Yet in totalitarian societies even aesthetics are political so whether a person is a dissident is in the eye of the beholder.”
A Progressive on the Prairie » Book Review: In Search of My Homeland by Er Tai Gao » Print
“Sorry zuch, but they call it totalitarian for a reason.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Competing Explanations for the Oppressive Nature of Socialism
“They are like the rulers in totalitarian states (e.g. North Korea) who need to protect their people from an open flow of information.”
“One that knows that a bow of respect to an Emperor is not only culturally sensitive and appropriate, but that also one that knows how to provide firm yet diplomatic negotiation of the human right's abuses in totalitarian states.”
“This is something that is common in totalitarian societies.”
Think Progress » Mukasey calls Liz Cheney’s ‘Al-Qaeda 7′ ad ‘shoddy and dangerous.’
“Something that supposedly only happens in totalitarian regimes.”
“In fact, Congress prohibited domestic U.S. broadcasts by the VOA to make sure that it is not abused politically by any individual or groups, and to make sure that the kind of state media abuse seen historically in totalitarian and other communist countries did not happen in the U.S.”
The Huffington Post: Alemayehu G. Mariam: Let Ethiopians Hear America's Voice
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘totalitarian’.
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 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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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1834 more...
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Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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Sudeep's list
New words I learn.
sang-froid, haggard, gazebo, grotesque, cardinal, labyrinth, pejorative, visage, vignette, insouciant, formidable, prescient and 143 more...
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srboisvert's Words
couverture, poffertjes, naif, endermatic, prepense, aspic, otalgia, curettage,, florid, piffling, pillock, mow and 164 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for totalitarian.
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