Aristocracy

How to spell aristocracy

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce aristocracy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aristocracy mean?

1. nounThe highest social class, typically holding inherited titles, wealth, and privilege.
2. nounA system of government in which power is held by a small privileged or noble elite.

Aristocracy in a sentence

• The country estate had belonged to the same aristocracy for three centuries.

• The ancient city was governed as an aristocracy rather than a democracy.

• Members of the aristocracy once controlled most of the farmland in the region.

• The historian compared the merits of monarchy, democracy, and aristocracy.

Where does aristocracy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek aristokratia, which literally meant 'rule by the best', formed from aristos, meaning 'best' or 'noblest', and kratos, meaning 'power' or 'strength'. To the philosophers of ancient Athens, including Plato and Aristotle, it named an ideal form of government in which the most virtuous and capable citizens held authority, in contrast to rule by the many (democracy) or by one (monarchy). English absorbed the word in the late 1500s, partly through the French aristocratie, and over time the meaning drifted from 'government by the best' toward 'the privileged hereditary class', the nobility. The familiar ending -cracy turns up in a whole family of relatives such as 'democracy', 'bureaucracy', and 'autocracy', all sharing that same kratos for power. The spelling trap lives in the soft middle, where the unstressed vowels reduce to a schwa and the final -cracy is easily muddled, so it helps to anchor on aristo (the best) plus cracy (rule).

How the word is built

• aristo- (from Greek aristos: best, noblest)
• -cracy (from kratos: power, rule)