despotic
adjective
, di-\
Definition of despotic
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Other Words from despotic
, di- \
adverb
Synonyms & Antonyms for despotic
Synonyms
absolute, arbitrary, autocratic (also autocratical), czarist (also tsarist), dictatorial, monocratic, tyrannical (also tyrannic), tyrannous
Antonyms
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Examples of despotic in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Once an icon to many Africans, Mr. Mugabe grew increasingly despotic, persecuting the Ndebele minority, wresting farmland from its white owners, and driving the economy to ruin. — New York Times, "A Music Genre Grows in Zimbabwe, Fueled by Rage Against Authority," 7 Sep. 2019 Adding to the economic woes, the country's despotic leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has been conspicuously absent since mid-July, appearing just three times on state media, which once reported almost daily on the president's activities. — CNN, "A hermit nation ruled by an egomaniac: Is Turkmenistan on the brink of collapse?," 10 Aug. 2019 Beginning with the Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s, Tehran hosted and supported a number of powerful Shiite militias that were opposed to Saddam Hussein’s despotic rule. — Washington Post, "Iran has invested in allies and proxies across the Middle East. Here’s why they matter now.," 19 June 2019 The unrealized nations among them, such as the Kurds and the Uighurs, are prey to despotic states like Iran, Turkey and China. — Martin Peretz, WSJ, "‘The Empire and the Five Kings’ Review: The Desert Grows," 12 Feb. 2019 Major League Baseball likens the deal to its practice of dipping into Japanese players’ pay to compensate their league back home—rather different from teaming up with one of the world’s most despotic regimes. — Mary Anastasia O’grady, WSJ, "Baseball Teams Up With Castro," 30 Dec. 2018 Perovskaya clashed with her despotic father early on. — Eva Sohlman, New York Times, "Overlooked No More: The Russian Icon Who Was Hanged for Killing a Czar," 30 May 2018 Tracking the movements of every person at all times in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries would have required feats of manpower and bureaucracy beyond all but the most despotic regimes’ dreams. — Matt Ford, The New Republic, "The Supreme Court Cares About Your Digital Privacy," 22 June 2018 This dark and seemingly despotic world of election management, influence peddling, and voter data analytics is raising fundamental questions about how democratic institutions can survive these new digital threats. — David Carroll, WIRED, "The US Should Pay Attention to Foreign Cambridge Analytica Probes," 15 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'despotic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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