Definition of "dystopian"

If Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games turns up on middle-school curricula 50 years from now—and as accessible dystopian science fiction with allusions to early-21st-century strife, that isn’t out of the question—the lazy students of the future can be assured that they can watch the movie version and still get better than a passing grade.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎

In my book Britain has actually worked out how it wants to leave and the EU is preparing a new constitution as a result. The real Brexit is actually much more dystopian.

2019 June 30, Philip Oltermann, quoting Tom Hillenbrand, “German sci-fi fans lap up dystopian tales of Brexit Britain”, in The Guardian‎

He kept thinking about an episode of “Black Mirror,” the British dystopian anthology series, in which the characters rate everyone they interact with on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. (It doesn’t end well.)

2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, in New York Times‎

The whole city is immersed in a dystopian-looking smog: urban streets in sepia, emptier than usual, bathed in an eerie quiet.

2023 June 7, Samira Asma-Sadeque, “‘It’s too much’: New Yorkers don masks or stay inside amid smog crisis”, in The Guardian‎