anarchy

UK/ˈæn.ə.ki/US/ˈæn.ɚ.ki/

nounB2+2 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,849 of 15,258neutral

Anarchy is a state with no government and no order. Nobody in charge, and nothing to appeal to.

Everyday use means simply chaos, so describing a classroom as anarchy is a complaint about noise. The political sense is more careful, since anarchism is a serious tradition arguing for a society organised without a state, which its supporters insist is not the same as disorder. That gap between the everyday and the political meaning is where most arguments about the word start. The adjective anarchic usually means wildly disordered.

Definitions of anarchy

1nounanarchyA state of disorder from an absence of authority.B2+
“The last hour of the party was complete anarchy.”
2nounsocietyA society organised without a governing state.C1
“He wrote three books defending anarchy as a political system.”

Where it comes from

New Latin
anarchia
English, today
anarchy

From New Latin anarchia. From New Latin anarchia, from Ancient Greek ἀναρχία. by surface analysis, an- + -archy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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