Kleptocracy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A corrupt and dishonest government or society characterised by theft and greed.

    "Quevedo, no ordinary person, is very amusing. His Visions of Hell in particular, though of a very different kind from Dante's, are more edifying. But our business at present is with his "History of Paul the Spanish Sharper, the Pattern of Rogues and Mirror of Vagabonds." We do not know that he deserves these appellations so much as some others but they are to be looked upon as titular ornaments, common to the Spanish Kleptocracy."

Example

More examples

"Mugabe's regime did not so much slide as plunge headlong into kleptocracy."

Etymology

From klepto- + -cracy.

Related phrases

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