The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural despotisms
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. quotations examples
The iron hand of despotism has quenched the last spark of liberty; hunted down like a wild beast, I am watching an opportunity to fly my degraded and enslaved country.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 136
But now events have proved that I was right because Khrushchev's grandchildren do live in freedom and the great question of our time: can they continue to live in freedom, or will they revert to the old, or a new despotism?
1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 4:50 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington", Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020