Democracies

How to spell democracies

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce democracies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does democracies mean?

1. nounSystems of government in which power is held by the people, usually through elected representatives; the plural of democracy.

Democracies in a sentence

• Established democracies tend to hold regular, free elections.

• The report compared voter turnout across several western democracies.

Where does democracies come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek demokratia, which was built from demos, meaning 'the common people' or 'the populace', and kratos, meaning 'strength, power, or rule'. So at its heart the word literally describes 'rule by the people', a system the ancient Athenians pioneered in the fifth century BC. It passed into English in the late 1500s by way of French democratie and Latin democratia, before settling into its modern English shape. The same demos root survives in 'demography' and 'epidemic', while the kratos element powers words such as 'aristocracy', 'bureaucracy', and 'autocracy'. When the singular 'democracy' is made plural, the final 'y' changes to 'ies', giving 'democracies', and remembering the buried 'c' before the soft 's' sound is the main spelling hurdle.

How the word is built

• demo- (from demos: the people)
• -cracy (from kratia: rule, power)
• -ies (plural of -y)