Theocracy

//θiːˈɒkɹəsi// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Government under the control of a state religion. countable, uncountable

    "Near-synonym: clericocracy"

  2. 2
    the belief in government by divine guidance wordnet
  3. 3
    Rule by a god. countable, uncountable

    "For quotations using this term, see Citations:theocracy."

  4. 4
    a political unit governed by a deity (or by officials thought to be divinely guided) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
absolute monarchyaristocracyautarchyautocracyautonomyclericocracy

Example

More examples

"A theocracy engulfed the supernation and authorities forbade spaceflight for generations."

Etymology

From theo- + -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the ancient Israelite polity under the Mosaic covenant. Attested in English from the 1620s, first by John Donne in A Sermon upon the fifth of November 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason: "The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God..."

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