Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The office or tenure of a dictator.
  • noun A state or government under dictatorial rule.
  • noun Absolute or despotic control or power.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The office or dignity of a dictator; the term of a dictator's office.
  • noun Absolute authority; dogmatism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The office, or the term of office, of a dictator; hence, absolute power.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of government where absolute sovereignty is allotted to an individual or a small clique.
  • noun A government which exercises autocratic rule.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dictator +‎ -ship

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Examples

  • And so the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes the _dictatorship of a single person_, a super-boss and industrial autocrat: We must learn to combine the stormy, energetic breaking of all restraint on the part of the toiling masses _with iron discipline during work, with absolute submission to the will of one person, the Soviet director, during work_. [

    Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy John Spargo 1921

  • We will have a judiciary that will think a dictatorship is appropriate.

    D-Day in West Virginia 2008

  • She's even said that she's thinking about exploring the potential of turning what she called a dictatorship into a democracy, by exploring once again a, I guess, political revival for her.

    CNN Transcript Oct 18, 2007 2007

  • And I don't use that term lightly; the very definition of a dictatorship is a system that puts a ruler above the law.

    Boing Boing: December 18, 2005 - December 24, 2005 Archives 2005

  • HARRIS: At a mass the day before he was elected pope, then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, warned against what he called the dictatorship of relativisms.

    CNN Transcript Apr 24, 2005 2005

  • This hope was not realized, as we know, and the break-up of the government came within a month, when the Bolsheviki at last accomplished their long-planned armed uprising, and by force established what they called the dictatorship of the proletariat.

    The Russian Revolution; the Jugo-Slav Movement Frank Alfred Golder 1903

  • In the essay, he dissected what he called the "dictatorship of ritual" - the ossified Soviet bloc system under Leonid Brezhnev - and imagined what happens when an ordinary greengrocer stops displaying communist slogans and begins "living in truth," rediscovering "his suppressed identity and dignity."

    NYT > Home Page By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 2011

  • In the essay, he dissected what he called the "dictatorship of ritual" the ossified Soviet bloc system under Leonid Brezhnev and imagined what happens when an ordinary greengrocer stops displaying communist slogans and begins "living in truth," rediscovering "his suppressed identity and dignity."

    News 2011

  • In the essay, he dissected what he called the "dictatorship of ritual" - the ossified Soviet bloc system under Leonid Brezhnev - and imagined what happens when an ordinary greengrocer stops displaying communist slogans and begins "living in truth," rediscovering "his suppressed identity and dignity."

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Chile backs off plans to delete Gen Pinochet 'dictatorship' from school books Chile is backing off a controversial plan to remove the word "dictatorship" from school textbooks in reference to the military government of Gen Augusto Pinochet.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2012

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