Democracy

How to spell democracy

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce democracy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does democracy mean?

1. nounA system of government in which power rests with the people, usually exercised through elected representatives.

Democracy in a sentence

• The new constitution established a parliamentary democracy with free elections.

• Voting in local elections is a basic duty in any healthy democracy.

Where does democracy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek demokratia, which literally meant 'rule by the people'. It was assembled from demos, meaning 'the common people' or 'the populace', and kratos, meaning 'power', 'strength', or 'rule'. The term described the political system pioneered in ancient Athens, where eligible citizens themselves decided public matters rather than leaving them to a king. It travelled into English in the sixteenth century by way of the French democratie and the Latin democratia, keeping the Greek -cracy ending that English also reuses in words like 'aristocracy' and 'bureaucracy'. That shared -cracy suffix is worth remembering, since the spelling trap is the unstressed middle, where the second syllable sounds like a vague 'mock' and the ending is a soft 'crassy' rather than anything written as it sounds.

How the word is built

• demo- (from Greek demos: the common people)
• -cracy (from kratos: power, rule)