Orwellian

//ɔɹˈwɛli.ən// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling the totalitarian political methods decried in the works of writer George Orwell, particularly in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; characterized by use of misleading terminology, propaganda, censorship, surveillance and repression.

    "“But they soon find out that an enforced equality, without free individualism to temper it, becomes an Orwellian nightmare-version of the workers' paradise, in which ‘all are equal, but some are more equal than others.’”"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to the works of George Orwell (especially his picture of a future totalitarian state) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
1984-esque1984-ishdraconianorwellesque

Example

More examples

"“But they soon find out that an enforced equality, without free individualism to temper it, becomes an Orwellian nightmare-version of the workers' paradise, in which ‘all are equal, but some are more equal than others.’”"

Etymology

From Orwell + -ian.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.