idiocracy

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English

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Etymology

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From idiot +‎ -cracy. The word was coined by the writers of a 2006 movie about the topic, which some have interpreted as presaging, through caricature, the state of the world.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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idiocracy (countable and uncountable, plural idiocracies)

  1. (humorous, politics) A government run by idiots.
    • 2010 February 6, Jacob Weisberg, “Down With the People”, in Slate:
      In trying to explain why our political paralysis seems to have gotten so much worse over the past year, analysts have rounded up a plausible collection of reasons including: President Obama's tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, the blustering idiocracy of the cable-news stations, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for any important legislation.
  2. (slang, derogatory) A society where idiocy is the norm, often denoting the current state of the world.

Usage notes

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Do not confuse idiocracy ("rule by idiots") with its (historically older) homophones, idiocrasy ("idiosyncrasy") and ideocracy ("rule by ideologues").

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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