theocracy

English

Etymology

theo- +‎ -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the kingdom of Israel. Attested in English from the 1630s, first by John Donne in a 1631 sermon: The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /θiːˈɒkɹəsɪ/
Audio (US) (file)
Homophone: theocrasy

Noun

theocracy (countable and uncountable, plural theocracies)

Government under the control of a state religion.
Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by the Dalai Lama prior to Chinese annexation.
The Vatican City State is a sovereign city-state and a Christian theocracy ruled by the Pope.
Rule by a god.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:theocracy.

Hyponyms

sharia law

Related terms

theocrat
theocratic

Translations

government under the control of a Church

Afrikaans: theokrasie
Albanian: teokraci (sq)
Arabic: ثِيُقْرَاطِيَّة‎ f (ṯiyuqrāṭiyya)
Armenian: թեոկրատիա (hy) (tʿeokratia), կրոնապետություն (hy) (kronapetutʿyun)
Azerbaijani: teokratiya
Basque: teokrazia
Belarusian: тэакра́тыя f (teakrátyja)
Bulgarian: теокра́ция (bg) f (teokrácija)
Catalan: teocràcia f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 神權政治 (zh), 神权政治 (zh) (shénquán zhèngzhì)，政教合一 (zh) (zhèngjiào héyī)
Czech: teokracie f
Danish: teokrati c
Dutch: theocratie (nl) f
Esperanto: teokratio
Estonian: teokraatia (et)
Finnish: teokratia (fi)
French: théocratie (fr) f
Galician: teocracia (gl) f
Georgian: თეოკრატია (teoḳraṭia)
German: Theokratie (de) f
Greek: θεοκρατία (el) f (theokratía)
Ancient: θεοκρατία f (theokratía)
Hebrew: תאוקרטיה‎ (he) f (teokrátya)
Hindi: धर्मतंत्र (dharmatantra)
Hungarian: papi uralom, teokrácia
Icelandic: klerkaveldi n
Ido: teokratio (io)
Indonesian: teokrasi (id)
Italian: teocrazia (it) f
Japanese: 神権政治 (しんけんせいじ, shinken seiji)
Kazakh: теократия (teokratiä)
Korean: 신권 정치 (sin'gwon jeongchi), 제정 일치 (jejeong ilchi)
Latvian: teokrātija f
Lithuanian: teokratija (lt) f
Macedonian: теократија f (teokratija)
Malay: teokrasi (ms)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: teokrati (no) n
Nynorsk: teokrati n
Persian: تئوکراسی‎ (fa) (teokrâsi)
Polish: teokracja (pl) f
Portuguese: teocracia (pt) f
Romanian: teocrație (ro) f
Russian: теокра́тия (ru) f (teokrátija)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: теократија f (Bosnia, Serbia), теокрација f (Croatia)
Roman: teokratija f (Bosnia, Serbia), teokracija (sh) f (Croatia)
Sicilian: teocrazzìa f
Slovak: teokracia f
Slovene: teokracija f
Spanish: teocracia (es) f
Swedish: teokrati (sv) c
Thai: เทวาธิปไตย (tee-waa-tí-bpà-dtai)
Turkish: teokrasi (tr)
Ukrainian: теокра́тія f (teokrátija)
Vietnamese: thần quyền (vi)

rule by God or gods

Catalan: teocràcia f
Finnish: teokratia (fi)
French: théocratie (fr) f
Icelandic: guðveldi n
Spanish: teocracia (es) f
Thai: เทวาธิปไตย (tee-waa-tí-bpà-dtai)