despotism

English

Etymology

From French despotisme.

Pronunciation

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Noun

despotism (countable and uncountable, plural despotisms)

1. government by a singular authority, either a single person or tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.

Synonyms

• tyranny

Related terms

• despot
• despotate
• despotic

Translations

government by a singular authority

• Bulgarian: деспотизъм (bg) m (despotizǎm)
• Catalan: despotisme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 專制 (zh), 专制 (zh) (zhuānzhì)

• Czech: despotismus m, despocie f
• Danish: despoti (da)
• Finnish: itsevaltius (fi)
• French: despotisme (fr)
• Georgian: დესპოტიზმი (desṗoṭizmi)
• German: Despotie (de) f, Despotismus (de) m, Willkür (de) f
• Greek: δεσποτισμός (el) m (despotismós)
• Hungarian: despotizmus (hu)
• Irish: forlámhas m, smachtúlacht f, tíorántacht f

• Italian: dispotismo (it) m
• Japanese: 専制 (ja) (せんせい, sensei)
• Latin: despotismus m
• Polish: despotyzm (pl) m
• Portuguese: despotismo (pt) m
• Romanian: despotism (ro) n
• Russian: деспоти́зм (ru) m (despotízm), произво́л (ru) m (proizvól)
• Serbo-Croatian: despotizam (sh) m
• Spanish: despotismo m
• Swedish: despoti n, despotism (sv) n
• Ukrainian: деспотизм m (despotýzm)
• Volapük: däspot (vo)