Authoritarian

//əˌθɔɹ.əˈtɛɹ.i.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who commands absolute obedience to his or her authority.

    "The dictator was an authoritarian."

  2. 2
    a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner wordnet
  3. 3
    One who follows and is excessively obedient to authority.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, or relating to, or exhibiting strict obedience to an authority; favoring authoritarianism over civic and individual liberties.

    "the authoritarian personality"

  2. 2
    Demanding obedience to authority; marked by authoritarianism; dictatorial, tyrannical.

    "The authoritarian government was demanding stricter laws for low-wage peasants."

  3. 3
    Tending to impose one's demands upon others as if one were an authority.
Adjective
  1. 1
    characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty wordnet
  2. 2
    expecting unquestioning obedience wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
arrogantilliberaloverbearingbossyabsoluteabsolutist

Example

More examples

"Human rights groups are putting pressure on authoritarian governments."

Etymology

From authority + -arian, circa 1880.

Related phrases

anti-authoritarianauthoritarian democracycounter-authoritarianpost-authoritarian

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