tyranny
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English tirannye, borrowed from Old French tyrannie, from Medieval Latin tyrannia, tyrania, from Ancient Greek τυραννία (turannía, “tyranny”), from τύραννος (túrannos, “lord, master, sovereign, tyrant”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
tyranny (countable and uncountable, plural tyrannies)
- A government in which a single ruler (a tyrant) has absolute power; this system of government.
- The office or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler.
- Absolute power, or its use.
- A system of government in which power is exercised on behalf of the ruler or ruling class, without regard to the wishes of the governed.
- 2019 April 28, Hagai El-Ad, “What kind of democracy deports human rights workers?”, in Yoni Molad, transl., +972 Magazine[1]:
- Control, dispossession, violence, and tyranny are not “defensive”: they are part of an organized, ongoing aggression.
- Extreme severity or rigour.
Synonyms[edit]
- (government): autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, monarchy
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
government in which a single ruler has absolute power
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office or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler
absolute power, or its use
extreme severity or rigour
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- tyranny in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- tyranny in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911.
- tyranny at OneLook Dictionary Search
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
tyranny
- Alternative form of tirannye
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 3-syllable words
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- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
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- en:Forms of government
- Middle English lemmas
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