Kleptarchy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Kleptocracy; rule by one or more thieves.

    "First, there is this great outstanding fact: that from the day of our independence the soul of the American people has been growing more and more democratic, and where the spirit of democracy is, whatever the institutional maladjustment, even a kleptarchy cannot go far wrong."

Example

More examples

"First, there is this great outstanding fact: that from the day of our independence the soul of the American people has been growing more and more democratic, and where the spirit of democracy is, whatever the institutional maladjustment, even a kleptarchy cannot go far wrong."

Etymology

From klepto- + -archy.

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