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say it: uh-thaw-ruh-TER-ee-uhn
authoritarian is an adjective and noun meaning "characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty". It carries 3 recorded senses.
characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty
“an authoritarian regime”
“autocratic government”
“despotic rulers”
“a dictatorial rule that lasted for the duration of the war”
“a tyrannical government”
expecting unquestioning obedience
“the timid child of authoritarian parents”
“insufferably overbearing behavior toward the waiter”
a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner
“my boss is a dictator who makes everyone work overtime”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for authoritarian come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.