totalitarian
/ˌtəʊtalɪˈtɛəɹiən/
totalitarian means of or relating to a system of government where the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control of every aspect of the country, socially, financially, and politically. It carries an Arena rating of 1420, earned across 19 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, totalitarian ranks #421 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #574 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #604 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,422 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
totalitarian is pronounced /ˌtəʊtalɪˈtɛəɹiən/.
Why “totalitarian” is a great word
A system of government that exercises absolute, centralized control over all aspects of public and private life. From Italian totalitario ("complete, absolute, totalitarian") + English -an, modeled on Italian totalitario, from total ("total") + the ending from authoritarian; first used in English in the 1920s to describe Italian Fascism. Unlike authoritarian, which denotes a concentration of political power demanding obedience, or dictatorial, characterized by the absolute rule of a single leader, totalitarian describes the state's ambition to absorb all of society, to dissolve the boundary between public duty and private conscience. It is the ceaseless radio barrage from a single station, the children's report on their parents' unorthodox thoughts, and the mandatory portrait of the Leader hung in every room—a political form of a world where nothing is permitted to be meaningless.
Etymology
From Italian totalitario (“complete, absolute, totalitarian”) + -an. Equivalent to totality + -arian.
adj
- Of or relating to a system of government where the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control of every aspect of the country, socially, financially, and politically.e.g.“The divine truth is stronger than totalitarian falsehoods.”
noun
- An advocate of totalitarianism.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- totalism 73% match — A social, economic and/or political system in which some authority (e.g. the state or "the market") wields absolute power; totalitarianism. vs totalitarian →
- totalistic 68% match — Of or relating to totalism. vs totalitarian →
- authoritarianism 66% match — A form of government in which the governing body has absolute, or almost absolute, control. Typically this control is maintained by force, and little heed is paid to public opinion or the judicial system. vs totalitarian →
- authoritarianistic 59% match — Of or pertaining to authoritarianism or to authoritarians. vs totalitarian →
- tyranny 59% match — A government in which a single ruler (a tyrant) has absolute power, or this system of government; especially, one that acts cruelly and unjustly. vs totalitarian →
- totality 58% match — The state of being total. vs totalitarian →
- autocratic 57% match — Of or pertaining to autocracy or to an autocrat; absolute; holding independent and arbitrary powers of government. vs totalitarian →
- authoritarian 57% match — Of, or relating to, or exhibiting strict obedience to an authority; favoring authoritarianism over civic and individual liberties. vs totalitarian →