one-man rule

1. 1.

   a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

   SynonymsdictatorshipabsolutismauthoritarianismCaesarismdespotismmonocracyshogunateStalinismtotalitarianismtyranny

   Broaderautocracy

   Narrowerpolice state

Questions about one-man rule

What does one-man rule mean?

one-man rule means "a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)".

What is another word for one-man rule?

Close synonyms include dictatorship, absolutism, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is one-man rule a common word?

one-man rule is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.