despotism

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction,” FDR said when accepting the presidential nomination for the second time.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2025

Mr Jones claimed Mr Williams had run "a regime of despotism" throughout his daughter's tenure at the channel and sacked her "without consultation".

From BBC • Dec. 19, 2023

Their devotion to Slowick meanwhile, hovers between that of a proletarian army in revolt against its oppressors and the legions of the undead commanded by figures of aristocratic despotism such as Dracula.

From Salon • Dec. 17, 2022

Plagues, droughts, floods, toxic air and water, wars, massacres, famines, earthquakes, heat waves, wildfires, recessions, dust storms, despotism — slow-motion nightmares are crashing into fast-moving catastrophes, each one amplifying the next.

From New York Times • Nov. 10, 2022

Prison administration couldn’t help being a despotism, but it could be an enlightened one.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover