Other forms: democracies
Democracy is the system in which the people choose who governs them, by voting. A ballot paper, a booth with a curtain, a long night of counting, and a leader who has to leave when enough people say so.
The word covers the idea and the country at once: democracy as a principle, and the world's democracies as a set of states. A democrat believes in it, and democratic is the adjective — a democratic election, or a democratic decision at the tennis club where everyone got a vote. Mind the capital letter: in the United States the Democratic Party is one particular party, and a Democrat with a big D is a member of it, which is a separate matter from believing in democracy. Democracy is more than voting — a free press, honest courts, a losing side that hands over power — which is why people argue about whether a country truly is one. Stress the second syllable, de-MOC-racy, but the first in DEM-ocrat.
1noundemocracyA system of government in which people elect their leaders by voting.
“After thirty years of army rule, the country returned to democracy.”
2noungovernedA country governed in that way.
“Britain and Japan are both democracies.”
3nounprincipleThe principle that everyone in a group has an equal say.
“There is not much democracy in a committee where one man decides everything.”
democracy is a system of government.
The Greek δημοκρατία is built from dēmos, the people, and kratos, power: power in the hands of the people. Athens used it for its own assembly, where citizens turned up and voted in person. The word travelled through Medieval Latin dēmocratia and Middle French democratie before English took it.
Ancient Greek
δημοκρᾰτῐ́ᾱ
Medieval Latin
dēmocratia
Middle French
democratie
English, today
democracy
From Middle French democratie (French démocratie), from Medieval Latin dēmocratia, from Ancient Greek δημοκρᾰτῐ́ᾱ. by surface analysis, demo- + -cracy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA