Dictatorship

How to spell dictatorship

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce dictatorship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dictatorship mean?

1. nounA system of government in which one ruler or small group holds absolute power, usually obtained or maintained by force.

Dictatorship in a sentence

• The country slid into dictatorship after the army seized control.

• Historians debate how the fragile republic collapsed into dictatorship.

Where does dictatorship come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows from the Latin verb dicere, meaning 'to say' or 'to speak', whose frequentative form dictare meant 'to keep saying' and so 'to dictate' or 'to command'. From this came the Latin noun dictator, the title of a Roman magistrate granted absolute authority for a limited emergency, literally 'one who gives orders'. English took 'dictator' into use during the late Middle Ages and through the 1500s, and the abstract noun 'dictatorship' followed by adding the native English suffix -ship, which marks an office, rank, or condition, the same ending seen in 'friendship' and 'leadership'. Over time the word lost its narrow Roman sense of a temporary office and came to mean any regime of unchecked single-person rule. The shared dicere root also lies behind 'dictate', 'diction', and 'predict', a useful reminder that the tricky middle is spelled dict, not dick.

How the word is built

• dict (from Latin dicere: to say, speak)
• -ator (agent: one who commands)
• -ship (state, office, or condition of)