as in dictators
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
a Latin-American strongman who basically treated his nation's coffers as his personal bank account
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of strongmen
Milei’s libertarian economic program directly countered the Peronists’ statism, but his demagogic political style mirrors that of the old strongmen.
—
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 26 Oct. 2025
With so many governments today led by strongmen—or would-be strongmen—in Africa and beyond, Odinga’s passing is a landmark loss.
—Ian Bremmer, Time, 22 Oct. 2025
Bishnoi enrolled in Panjab University, an institution that has long served as a direct pipeline for the region’s future political strongmen and, in some cases, its most notorious criminals.
—Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025
And this matters now more than ever, during a time when universities are dismantling their humanities programs and being pressured into pandering to authoritarian strongmen.
—Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 26 Oct. 2025
With so many governments today led by strongmen—or would-be strongmen—in Africa and beyond, Odinga’s passing is a landmark loss.
—Ian Bremmer, Time, 22 Oct. 2025
Bishnoi enrolled in Panjab University, an institution that has long served as a direct pipeline for the region’s future political strongmen and, in some cases, its most notorious criminals.
—Rhea Mogul, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025
And this matters now more than ever, during a time when universities are dismantling their humanities programs and being pressured into pandering to authoritarian strongmen.
—Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for strongmen
Noun
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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
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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
Noun
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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
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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
“Strongmen.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/strongmen. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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