autocrat

noun

au·​to·​crat ˈȯ-tə-ˌkrat How to pronounce autocrat (audio)
Synonyms of autocratnext
1
: a person (such as a monarch) ruling with unlimited authority
2
: one who has undisputed influence or power
He was the autocrat of his household.

Synonyms

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Examples of autocrat in a Sentence

European autocrats once commonly believed that they had received the right to rule directly from God.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The public can’t handle the truth Recent political shows have settled into a mode that suggests the proletariat is, well, dumb — think of how The Regime depicts the populace of its unnamed country cheering for Kate Winslet’s mustard-fetishizing autocrat. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024 This shock-the-monkey approach might have a sliver of merit if the U.S. economy were self-sufficient in renewables and if the autocrats weren’t poised to capitalize by filling the vacuum with their far more carbon-intensive oil and gas and less environmentally friendly refining techniques. —Dan Ikenson, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024 The country’s revolution inspired millions of people across the Middle East to rise up against their own autocrats. —Sarah E. Yerkes, Foreign Affairs, 4 Nov. 2024 The story of that secret anti-Maduro effort also lays bare the tensions between an administration with hardliners laser-focused on deposing the Venezuelan autocrat and a CIA deeply reluctant, yet nevertheless obligated, to follow White House orders. —Zach Dorfman, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for autocrat 

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French & Greek; French autocrate, borrowed from Greek autokratḗs "ruling by itself (of a mind), with sole authority (for a task)," from auto- auto- + -kratēs, adjective derivative of kratéō, krateîn "to be strong or powerful, have command, rule," derivative of krátos "strength, power, authority" — more at hard entry 1

Note: The Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, notes that the earliest English attestation of autocrat, from 1762, precedes the earliest French attestation by six years. The source in question, the newspaper The Public Advertiser, uses the word as part of the title of Catherine II, "Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias." "Autocrat" here most likely translates, with the loss of the feminine suffix, French autocratrice, a word used in the French titles of three Russian empresses: Anna (1730-40), Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-62), and Catherine (1762-1796). The masculine correspondent was autocrateur, which corresponds not to Greek autokratḗs, but rather to the adjective autokrátōr, which is better attested in ancient Greek in a wider array of meanings: "independent, with full authority, in control, with sole authority," and in the early Roman empire is used as the Greek equivalent of Latin imperātor (see imperator, emperor). Indeed, though the etymology above showing borrowing from autokratḗs is formally acceptable, English autocrate may more likely be a back-formation from autocracy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the meanings "self-control" and "absolute power," and also spelled autocrasy, autocraty) (compare aristocrat, democrat). The Russian equivalents of French autocrateur and autocratrice were samoderžec and samoderžica (compare samoderžavie "autocracy"), which themselves represent calques on Greek autokrátōr, though at a much earlier period (Old Church Slavic samodrŭžĭcĭ, samodrŭžitelĭ, from samo- "self" and drŭžati "to hold, have, control").

First Known Use

1762, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of autocrat was in 1762

Dictionary Entries Near autocrat

autocracy

autocrat

autocratic

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Cite this Entry

“Autocrat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autocrat. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.

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Kids Definition

autocrat

noun
au·​to·​crat ˈȯt-ə-ˌkrat How to pronounce autocrat (audio)
: a person who rules with unlimited authority

More from Merriam-Webster on autocrat

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