as in tyrants
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
the dictator had a fierce stranglehold on the country, keeping its people in poverty and ignorance
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Recent Examples of dictators
But as the microbes spread across the screen, the visual becomes almost hypnotic—and, as Peck recently told me, akin to how dictators overwhelm people’s abilities to determine fact from fiction.
—
Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The author understood how power works, and the lengths that people, classes, political parties and dictators would go to keep it.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2025
Declaring war on our nation’s cities and using our troops as political pawns is what dictators do.
—Brian Bennett, Time, 30 Sep. 2025
This is what dictators and authoritarians do.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 22 Sep. 2025
The persecution worsened more than a decade ago during uprisings that remade the Middle East by toppling dictators — including Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak — but in some places spiraled into civil war.
—Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 10 Sep. 2025
Movie lovers tend to think of producers as dictators of formulas, oppressors of originality, the enemies of art, but that just reflects the unfortunate history of studio filmmaking in Hollywood and elsewhere.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2025
Xi was flanked by Putin and Kim, two brutal and aggressive dictators whom many nations would rather shun.
—Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
What To Know The portrait provoked reaction on social media, with some comparing the move to display it to those made by dictators.
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Aug. 2025
Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
The author understood how power works, and the lengths that people, classes, political parties and dictators would go to keep it.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2025
Declaring war on our nation’s cities and using our troops as political pawns is what dictators do.
—Brian Bennett, Time, 30 Sep. 2025
This is what dictators and authoritarians do.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 22 Sep. 2025
The persecution worsened more than a decade ago during uprisings that remade the Middle East by toppling dictators — including Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak — but in some places spiraled into civil war.
—Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 10 Sep. 2025
Movie lovers tend to think of producers as dictators of formulas, oppressors of originality, the enemies of art, but that just reflects the unfortunate history of studio filmmaking in Hollywood and elsewhere.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2025
Xi was flanked by Putin and Kim, two brutal and aggressive dictators whom many nations would rather shun.
—Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
What To Know The portrait provoked reaction on social media, with some comparing the move to display it to those made by dictators.
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dictators
tyrants
Noun
-
As historian Timothy Snyder warns, tyrants will always take advantage of a national crisis to consolidate their power and remove their opponents’ civil liberties.—
Rev. Nathan Empsall,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
-
And while the band's frontman Freddie Mercury only made it into his 40s, the song's question continues to haunt people—especially aging tyrants who fear that the icy hand of death is upon their shoulder and want far more time to ensure both national and personal glory.—
Nate Anderson,
ArsTechnica,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dictators.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dictators. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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