autocrat

autocrat

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French autocrate, itself from Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατής (autokratḗs, “sovereign”), from αὐτο- (auto-, “self”) (combinatory form of αὐτός (autós)) + κρατία (kratía, “rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “strength, power”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔːtəkɹæt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

autocrat (plural autocrats)

1. An absolute ruler with infinite power.

   Synonyms: autocrator, despot, dictator, monarch, tyrant, strongman

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 131:

     Your salary is high; you are to have apartments in the house; and to be the autocrat of the library, where, I shrewdly suspect, your reign will be undisturbed.

   • 2022 August 2, Pelosi, Nancy, “Nancy Pelosi: Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan”, in The Washington Post‎, archived from the original on 02 August 2022, Opinion:

     Indeed, we take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents — even children — it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:autocrat.
2. A title borne by some such monarchs, as in Byzantium and tsarist Russia.
3. Until the 20th century, a favorable description of a ruler who was connected with the concept of lack of conflicts of interest and an indication of grandeur and power.

Related terms

• autocracy

Translations

ruler with absolute power

Albanian: autokrat (sq) m Arabic: مُسْتَبِدّ‎ m (mustabidd), جَبَّار‎ m (jabbār) Armenian: ինքնակալ (hy) (inkʿnakal) Azerbaijani: avtokrat Belarusian: аўтакра́т m (aŭtakrát), аўтакра́тка f (aŭtakrátka), самаўла́дца m (samaŭládca), самадзе́ржац m (samadzjéržac) Bulgarian: автокра́т (bg) m (avtokrát), автокра́тка f (avtokrátka), самодържа́вец m (samodǎržávec) Burmese: သက်ဦးဆံပိုင် (my) (sak-u:hcampuing) Catalan: autòcrata (ca) m or f Chinese: Mandarin: 獨裁者／独裁者 (zh) (dúcáizhě) Czech: samovládce m, autokrat (cs) m Danish: autokrat c Dutch: autocraat (nl) m, alleenheerser (nl) m Esperanto: aŭtokrato Estonian: autokraat Faroese: einaveldisharri m, einaræðisharri m Finnish: itsevaltias (fi) French: autocrate (fr) m or f Georgian: ავტოკრატი (avṭoḳraṭi) German: Autokrat (de) m, Autokratin (de) f Greek: δεσπότης (el) m (despótis) Hebrew: אוטוֹקְרָט‎ (he) m (aotokrát) Hindi: तानाशाह (hi) m (tānāśāh) Hungarian: zsarnok (hu) Ido: autokrato (io) Indonesian: autokrat (id) Irish: uathlathaí m Italian: autocrate (it) m Japanese: 独裁者 (どくさいしゃ, dokusaisha) Kazakh: автократ (avtokrat) Khmer: អត្តាធិបតី (ʼattaathipaʼdəy) Korean: 독재자(獨裁者) (ko) (dokjaeja) Kyrgyz: автократ (avtokrat) Lao: ຜະເດັດການ (pha det kān) Latvian: autokrāts m, patvaldnieks m Lithuanian: autokratas m, autokratė f Macedonian: автокра́т m (avtokrát), автокра́тка f (avtokrátka) Malay: autokrat Mongolian: Cyrillic: дарангуйлагч (mn) (darangujlagč) Mongolian: ᠳᠠᠷᠤᠩᠭᠤᠢᠯᠠᠭᠴᠢ (daruŋɣui̯laɣči) Norwegian: Bokmål: autokrat m Persian: خدایگان‎ (fa) (xodâygân), خداوندگار‎ (fa) (xodâvandgâr), خداوند‎ (fa) (xodâvand), خودکامه‎ (fa) (xodkâme), مستبد‎ (fa) (mostabedd) Polish: autokrata (pl) m, autokratka (pl) f, samowładca m, samowładczyni f Portuguese: autocrata (pt) m or f Romanian: autocrat (ro) m Russian: автокра́т (ru) m (avtokrát), самоде́ржец (ru) m (samodéržec), самодержа́вец (ru) m (samoderžávec) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: самодр̀жац m, самовла̀да̄р m, ауто̀кра̄т m Roman: samodr̀žac (sh) m, samovlàdār (sh) m, autòkrāt (sh) m Slovak: autokrat m, samovládca m Slovene: avtokrat m, avtokratinja f Spanish: autócrata (es) m Swedish: autokrat (sv) c, självhärskare (sv) c, envåldshärskare (sv) c Tajik: автократ (avtokrat), мустабид (mustabid) Thai: เผด็จการ (th) (pà-dèt-gaan) Turkish: otokrat (tr) Turkmen: awtokrat Ukrainian: автокра́т (uk) m (avtokrát), автокра́тка f (avtokrátka), самоде́ржець m (samodéržecʹ), самодержа́вець m (samoderžávecʹ) Uzbek: avtokrat Vietnamese: người chuyên quyền

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “autocrat”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• actuator

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Romanian

Etymology

From French autocrate, itself from Ancient Greek αὐτοκρατής (autokratḗs, “sovereign”), from αὐτο- (auto-, “self”) (combinatory form of αὐτός (autós)) + κρατία (kratía, “rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “strength, power”)).

Noun

autocrat m (plural autocrați)

1. An autocrat.

Declension

Declension of autocrat

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) autocrat	autocratul	(niște) autocrați	autocrații
genitive/dative	(unui) autocrat	autocratului	(unor) autocrați	autocraților
vocative	autocratule		autocraților

Related terms

• autocrație