Dictator

//dɪkˈteɪtə// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A totalitarian leader of a country, nation, or government.

    "The Dominicans had lived for thirty years under the iron-fisted rule of dictator Leonidas Trujillo. During those years, which ended with Trujillo's assassination in 1961, those who opposed Trujillo had three choices: to go into exile, to go underground, or to remain quiet. Most Dominicans had chosen the third course."

  2. 2
    a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner wordnet
  3. 3
    A magistrate without colleague in republican Ancient Rome, who held full executive authority for a term granted by the Senate, typically to conduct a war.
  4. 4
    a ruler who is unconstrained by law wordnet
  5. 5
    A tyrannical boss or authority figure.
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  1. 6
    a speaker who dictates to a secretary or a recording machine wordnet
  2. 7
    Misspelling of dictater. alt-of, misspelling

Synonyms

All synonyms
authoritarianabsolute monarchabsolute rulerall-powerful rulerarrogatorautarch

Example

More examples

"The notorious dictator abused his privileges to his heart's content."

Etymology

From Latin dictātor (“a chief magistrate”), from dictō (“dictate, prescribe”), from dīcō (“say, speak”). By surface analysis, dictate + -or, literally “one who dictates”. Compare Old English tictator (“absolute ruler of the Roman Republic”).

Related phrases

benevolent dictator for lifepetro-dictatortin-pot dictatortinpot dictatorancient rome

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