theocracy

English

Etymology

theo- +‎ -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the kingdom of Israel. Attested in English from the 1630s, first by John Donne in a 1631 sermon: The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θiːˈɒkɹəsɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: theocrasy

Noun

theocracy (countable and uncountable, plural theocracies)

1. Government under the control of a state religion.

   Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by the Dalai Lama prior to Chinese annexation.

   The Vatican City State is a sovereign city-state and a Christian theocracy ruled by the Pope.

2. Rule by a god.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:theocracy.

Hyponyms

• sharia law

Related terms

• theocrat
• theocratic

Translations

government under the control of a Church

• Afrikaans: theokrasie
• Albanian: teokraci (sq)
• Arabic: ثِيُقْرَاطِيَّة f (ṯiyuqrāṭiyya)
• Armenian: թեոկրատիա (hy) (tʻeokratia), կրոնապետություն (hy) (kronapetutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: teokratiya
• Basque: teokrazia
• Belarusian: тэакра́тыя f (teakrátyja)
• Bulgarian: теокра́ция (bg) f (teokrácija)
• Catalan: teocràcia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 神權政治／神权政治 (zh) (shénquán zhèngzhì), 神权政治 (zh) (shénquán zhèngzhì)，政教合一 (zh) (zhèngjiào héyī)

• Czech: teokracie f
• Danish: teokrati c
• Dutch: theocratie (nl) f
• Esperanto: teokratio
• Estonian: teokraatia (et)
• Finnish: teokratia (fi)
• French: théocratie (fr) f
• Galician: teocracia (gl) f
• Georgian: თეოკრატია (teoḳraṭia)
• German: Theokratie (de) f
• Greek: θεοκρατία (el) f (theokratía)

  Ancient: θεοκρατία f (theokratía)

• Hebrew: תאוקרטיה (he) f (teokrátya)
• Hindi: धर्मतंत्र (dharmatantra)
• Hungarian: papi uralom, teokrácia
• Icelandic: klerkaveldi n
• Ido: teokratio (io)
• Indonesian: teokrasi (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: teocrazia (it) f
• Japanese: 神権政治 (しんけんせいじ, shinken seiji)
• Kazakh: теократия (teokratiä)
• Korean: 신권 정치 (sin'gwon jeongchi), 제정 일치 (jejeong ilchi)
• Latvian: teokrātija f
• Lithuanian: teokratija (lt) f
• Macedonian: теократија f (teokratija)
• Malay: teokrasi (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: teokrati (no) n

  Nynorsk: teokrati n

• Persian: تئوکراسی (fa) (teokrási)
• Polish: teokracja (pl) f
• Portuguese: teocracia (pt) f
• Romanian: teocrație (ro) f
• Russian: теокра́тия (ru) f (teokrátija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: теократија f (Bosnia, Serbia), теокрација f (Croatia)

  Roman: teokratija f (Bosnia, Serbia), teokracija (sh) f (Croatia)

• Sicilian: teocrazzìa f
• Slovak: teokracia f
• Slovene: teokracija f
• Spanish: teocracia (es) f
• Swedish: teokrati (sv) c
• Thai: เทวาธิปไตย (tee-waa-tí-bpà-dtai)
• Turkish: teokrasi (tr)
• Ukrainian: теокра́тія f (teokrátija)
• Vietnamese: thần quyền (vi)

rule by God or gods

• Catalan: teocràcia f
• Finnish: teokratia (fi)
• French: théocratie (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: guðveldi n
• Spanish: teocracia (es) f
• Thai: เทวาธิปไตย (tee-waa-tí-bpà-dtai)