totalitarian

Totalitarian means relating to a government where the ruler or ruling group has complete control.

(adjective)

An example of totalitarian used as an adjective is in the phrase "totalitarian regime" which means a rule where the ruler has total authority over everyone.

The definition of a totalitarian is a person who practices or supports a government where the ruler has complete control.

(noun)

An example of a totalitarian is a king who does not give anyone any say in the government.

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See totalitarian in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

  1. designating, of, or characteristic of a government or state in which one political party or group maintains complete control under a dictatorship and bans all others
  2. completely authoritarian, autocratic, dictatorial, etc.

Origin: total + (author)itarian

noun

a person who favors such a government or state

Related Forms:

See totalitarian in American Heritage Dictionary 4

adjective
Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed: “A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomous institutions in its drive to seize the human soul” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
noun
A practitioner or supporter of such a government.

Origin:

Origin: total

Origin: + (author)itarian

.

Related Forms:

  • to·talˌi·tarˈi·an·ism noun

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