Other forms: dictatorships
A dictatorship is rule by one person with total power and no elections. Live under a dictatorship, a military dictatorship, the dictatorship fell.
The absence of any way to remove the ruler is what defines it, rather than cruelty — a benevolent dictatorship is still one. Elections held without a real alternative do not change that. In the Roman republic a dictator was appointed lawfully for six months in a crisis, which is where the word comes from.
1noundictatorshipRule by one person with total power and no elections.
“Under the dictatorship, newspapers could print only what the government allowed.”
dictatorship is a form of government.
Also accepted in games: tyranny
Latin
dictātor
English
dictator
English, today
dictatorship
Built from
From dictator + -ship. dictator Borrowed from Latin dictātor. From Latin dictātor (“a chief magistrate”), from dictō (“dictate, prescribe”), from dīcō (“say, speak”). by surface analysis, dictate + -or. Compare Old English tictator (“absolute ruler of the Roman Republic”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA