police state

NOUN

totalitarian rule

Synonyms

WEAK

brute force despotism rule of terror totalitarian government totalitarian regime totalitarianism

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.

"India is not a police state, but there's a dowry prohibition act and we need a better implementation of the law."

From BBC

Although happy to have escaped a lifetime in a police state, he is sometimes unsettled now, he said, by the casual cruelties and inequities of Western capitalism.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s a crisis that our city has become this dysfunctional — and also this purist, where a plan crafted by liberal Democrats in Olympia gets portrayed as setting up a police state.

From Seattle Times

“We hold that law and order can be restored without turning this country of the free into a police state,” the platform declared.

From New York Times

“It has turned into a police state and, increasingly, an authoritarian one.”

From New York Times