reign of terror

1. 1.

   any period of brutal suppression thought to resemble the Reign of Terror in France

   Broaderreign

   terrorism

2. 2.

   the historic period (1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed

   “the Reign of the Bourbons ended and the Reign of Terror began”

   Broaderhistoric period

Questions about reign of terror

What does reign of terror mean?

reign of terror means "any period of brutal suppression thought to resemble the Reign of Terror in France". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is reign of terror a common word?

reign of terror 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.