Totalitarian means controlling every part of life, public and private. A totalitarian state, totalitarian rule, totalitarian control.
It differs from merely authoritarian by reaching into private life — an authoritarian state wants obedience and a totalitarian one wants belief. The word was coined by Italian fascists about themselves, approvingly, and was taken up by their critics. Note that the Latin totus means whole.
1adjectivetotalitarianControlling every part of life, public and private.
“In the totalitarian state of the novel, cameras watch people even in their own homes.”
totalitarian is a form of rule.
Italian totalitario comes from totale, from Latin totus, whole. It was coined by Italian fascists about themselves.
Italian
totalitario — complete, absolute, totalitarian
English, today
totalitarian
From Italian totalitario (“complete, absolute, totalitarian”) an. Equivalent to totality + -arian.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA