as in tyranny
a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power
in times of crisis, when a nation's people are frightened, there are often calls for totalitarianism
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Recent Examples of totalitarianism
The skull is a thin barrier against totalitarianism.
—
Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 23 Apr. 2025
Instead, its a compelling spy thriller interrogating the reality of a gritty fight against totalitarianism.
—Eliana Dockterman, Time, 22 Apr. 2025
Through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is now on the verge of dissolution, the U.S. had funded 40% of the world’s foreign assistance, including programs designed to combat disease, malnutrition, maternal mortality, totalitarianism, and climate change.
—Belinda Luscombe, Time, 30 Apr. 2025
Forgotten Anne, for example, makes arguments against authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
—G Kirilloff, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for totalitarianism
Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 23 Apr. 2025
Instead, its a compelling spy thriller interrogating the reality of a gritty fight against totalitarianism.
—Eliana Dockterman, Time, 22 Apr. 2025
Through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is now on the verge of dissolution, the U.S. had funded 40% of the world’s foreign assistance, including programs designed to combat disease, malnutrition, maternal mortality, totalitarianism, and climate change.
—Belinda Luscombe, Time, 30 Apr. 2025
Forgotten Anne, for example, makes arguments against authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
—G Kirilloff, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for totalitarianism
Recent Examples of Synonyms for totalitarianism
Noun
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The guitar, by transitive property, broke down racial and class barriers, fought tyranny, freed up minds and bodies.—
Nick Paumgarten,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
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The Founding Fathers, having witnessed the abuses of centralized power under British rule, embedded this model into the Constitution to ensure a system of checks and balances, where each branch could limit the powers of the others, safeguarding against tyranny and upholding the rule of law.—
Andy J. Semotiuk,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
Noun
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Daniel Kehlmann’s latest novel, The Director, documents the little compromises that led G. W. Pabst, like millions of other people, to accept fascism.—
Susan Neiman,
The New York Review of Books,
22 May 2025
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Jews tend to teach their children to be wary of fascism from a very young age, with its nationalist bombast, its cult of masculinity, its contempt for pluralism and its relentless, bludgeoning lies.—
Michelle Goldberg,
Mercury News,
21 May 2025
Noun
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His parents, Marcelo Netto and Miriam Leitão, are both journalists who resisted the dictatorship and were persecuted.—
Marcelo Cajueiro,
Variety,
27 May 2025
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Men and women respond to the Nazi dictatorship by becoming, at best, evasive and feebly self-justifying, at worst, morally broken.—
David Denby,
New Yorker,
23 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Totalitarianism.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/totalitarianism. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
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