as in dictatorship
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
a popular uprising replaced that nation's tyranny with freedom and democracy
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tyranny
The Allies were an unprecedented coalition of countries, ideologies, and people of all walks of life who stood shoulder to shoulder to defeat tyranny.
—
Lt. General Leon Scott Rice, Boston Herald, 7 May 2025
For decades, Hollywood cast the American hero — from Rick Blaine to John McClane, Rocky Balboa, Ethan Hunt and Captain America — as the planet’s natural protagonist: the first responder to global chaos, the last line of defense against tyranny.
—Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 7 May 2025
Based on the students’ correspondence and diaries, their covert engagement with Catholic thought became a cornerstone of the White Rose’s rejection of Nazi tyranny.
—Peter Nguyen, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2025
Further, the program served a Cold War purpose: the abundance produced by American farmers alleviated the worst kinds of human suffering that had spawned tyranny abroad.
— Made By History, Time, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tyranny
Lt. General Leon Scott Rice, Boston Herald, 7 May 2025
For decades, Hollywood cast the American hero — from Rick Blaine to John McClane, Rocky Balboa, Ethan Hunt and Captain America — as the planet’s natural protagonist: the first responder to global chaos, the last line of defense against tyranny.
—Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 7 May 2025
Based on the students’ correspondence and diaries, their covert engagement with Catholic thought became a cornerstone of the White Rose’s rejection of Nazi tyranny.
—Peter Nguyen, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2025
Further, the program served a Cold War purpose: the abundance produced by American farmers alleviated the worst kinds of human suffering that had spawned tyranny abroad.
— Made By History, Time, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tyranny
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tyranny
Noun
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His parents, Marcelo Netto and Miriam Leitão, are both journalists who resisted the dictatorship and were persecuted.—
Marcelo Cajueiro,
Variety,
27 May 2025
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Nicaraguan journalists, exiled in Costa Rica because of the dictatorship at home, launched a crowdfunding campaign following the U.S. cuts.—
Nelson Mauricio Rauda Zablah,
Christian Science Monitor,
23 May 2025
Noun
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Daniel Kehlmann’s latest novel, The Director, documents the little compromises that led G. W. Pabst, like millions of other people, to accept fascism.—
Susan Neiman,
The New York Review of Books,
22 May 2025
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Jews tend to teach their children to be wary of fascism from a very young age, with its nationalist bombast, its cult of masculinity, its contempt for pluralism and its relentless, bludgeoning lies.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
21 May 2025
Noun
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Now American culture bows down to Anna Wintour’s despotism.—
Armond White,
National Review,
9 May 2025
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The necessity of power sharing also meant that Congress could provide a check against despotism even if the same party held the Presidency and a majority in both houses.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
31 Mar. 2025
Noun
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In the middle of the twentieth century, understandably proud of America’s indispensable role in defeating totalitarian autocracy, historians tended to emphasize our nation’s undeniable achievements.—
James T. Kloppenberg,
Time,
28 May 2025
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But if current trends are allowed to continue, Europe may soon encounter a completely militarized autocracy on its borders that is similar to North Korea’s in structure, and far more dangerous.—
ANDREI YAKOVLEV,
Foreign Affairs,
16 May 2025
Noun
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This lively novel examines the compromises and complicity of artists working in the face of totalitarianism through a fictional retelling of the life of the Austrian film director G. W. Pabst.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
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Communism and other forms of totalitarianism are often said to be antihuman.—
Rich Lowry,
National Review,
19 May 2025
Noun
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Women, regardless of hue, were excluded from the ballot with monastic absolutism.—
Jack Hill,
Baltimore Sun,
17 May 2025
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Bolton’s moral absolutism does not play well there.—
Christopher Sabatini,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Mar. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Tyranny.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tyranny. Accessed 1 Jun. 2025.
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