anarchy Hear it!

anarchy Definition

an·ar·chy (an′ər kē, -är′-)

noun pl. -·chies

  1. the complete absence of government
  2. political disorder and violence; lawlessness
  3. disorder in any sphere of activity

Etymology: Gr anarchia: see anarch

anarchy Synonyms

anarchy

n.

  1. Disorder

    turmoil, chaos, mob rule; see disorder 2.

  2. Absence of government

    political nihilism, disregard for law, lawlessness, avowed hostility to government.

anarchy Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • prevent: Able to dispense instant sentencing, Judges are the one thing preventing total anarchy.
  • bring: This is simply bringing anarchy into the army, and flinging victory away.
  • create: Uni don't like me creating anarchy in the lecture halls.
  • cause: A few seconds extra latency on the data network will likely go unnoticed but on the voice network it can cause anarchy!
  • have: I do not think that under modern Western materialism we should have anarchy.
  • avoid: Land management, to avoid anarchy, must be either public or private.

Adjective modifier

  • moral: This is the opposite of moral anarchy or rampant individualism.
  • near: The country, then under the presidency of Juarez, had fallen into a state of near anarchy.
  • total: A city on the brink of total anarchy is being held hostage by the increased threat of organized gang violence.
  • complete: Their live performances easily matching their name, often ending in complete anarchy - not a place for the faint hearted.
  • international: Finally, Carr says very little about ' international anarchy ' in the technical sense of ' absence of government ' .
  • political: The Net is a place of total anonymity, political anarchy in its purest incarnation.

Modifies a noun

  • reign: In South Africa anarchy reigns; Johannesburg is the world's capital of murder, street crime is out of control.
  • magazine: To repeat the recommendations in the editorial of the new Anarchy magazine issue might be the best place to start.
  • rule: But on the camp site itself it appeared to be a case of ' anarchy rules ' .

Noun used with modifier

  • private-property: Strictly speaking, market exchange is one aspect of private-property anarchy.

Preposition: in

  • production: Capitalism is private ownership of the means of production, and anarchy in production.

Preposition: of

  • production: The problem facing mobile phone production is typical anarchy of production.
  • market: Marx noted in Capital that the other side to the anarchy of the market is the tyranny of the factory.
  • capitalism: Within the limits set by the competition and anarchy of capitalism, they run the economy of the country.
anarchy Quotes

Government and co-operation are in all things the laws of life; anarchy and competition the laws of death.

—Ruskin,John

They that are discontented under monarchy call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy call it oligarchy; so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes that want of government is any new kind of government.

—Hobbes,Thomas

Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.

—Burke, Edmund

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. SeeAchebe 2:18.

—Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)

My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)† The most improper job of any man is bossing other men.

—Tolkien,J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel)