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Definitions: Democracy |
DemocracyNoun1. The political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives. 2. A political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them. 3. The doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "democracy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1651. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
19th Century Satire | A mysterious country, bounded on the east by Richard Olney, on the west by Willie Bryan, on the north by Dave Hill and on the south by Bennie Pitchfork Tillman. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Health | A system of government in which there is free and equal participation by the people in the political decision-making process. (references) |
Literature | Democracy A Republican form of government, a commonwealth. (Greek, demos-kratia, the rule of the people.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A democracy is a form of government in which the people, either directly or indirectly, take part in governing. The word democracy originates from Greek, "demos" meaning "the people" and "kratein" meaning "to rule" or "the people to rule" which meant literally: "Rule by the People."
Proponents of direct democracy contend that it is good because it devolves power. Because direct democracy disperses power throughout many people, policy decisions are likely to be made for the benefit of the majority, not for the benefit of factions or those who hold power.
The traditional, and to many still compelling, objection to democracy as a form of government, and to direct democracy in particular, is that it is open to demagoguery. Another objection to direct democracy is that of practicality and efficiency. Deciding all or most matters of public importance by direct referendum is slow and expensive, and can result in public apathy and voter fatigue.
A form of indirect democracy is delegative democracy. In delegative democracy, delegates are selected and expected to act on the wishes of the constituency. In this form of democracy the constituency may recall the delegate at any time. Representatives are expected only to transmit the decisions of electors, advance their views, and if they fail to do so they are subject to immediate representative recall with only minimal process.
The more familiar representative democracy is a system in which the people elect government officials who then make decisions on their behalf.
Essentially, a representative democracy is a form of indirect democracy in which representatives are democratically selected, and usually harder to recall.
A doctrine often known as Edmund Burke's Principle states that representatives should act upon their own conscience in the affairs of a representative democracy. This is contrasted to the expectation that such representatives should consider the views of their electors - an expectation particularly common in States with strong constituency links, or with representative recall provisions (such as modern British Columbia).
Les Marshall, an expert on the spread of democracy to nations that have not traditionally had these institutions, notes that "globally, there is no alternative to multi-party representative democracy" for those states that embrace democratic methods at all. This is not controversial: representative democracy is the most commonly used system of government in countries generally considered "democratic". However, it should be noted that the definition used to classify countries as "democratic" was crafted by Europeans and is directly influenced by the dominating cultures in those countries; care should be taken when applying it to other cultures that are tribal in nature and do not have the same historical background as the current "democratic" countries.
A recent example of how the "right to vote" changed over history is New Zealand, which was the first country to give women the right to vote (September 19, 1893), however not the right to be elected. Women voting and participating in politics in Europe and the Americas is, largely, a 20th century phenomenon.
Gender equity has been recognized in other ways in other societies, however. The Iroquois Confederacy gave a strong political role to women as far back as its origins in the 12th century, although as in 19th century New Zealand, this was expressed as support for a specific male, not the right to sit in council. However, they like many Native American societies recognized rituals to allow post-menopausal or powerful widowed women to assume the role of a man - it is likely that at some point in its long history, the Confederacy permitted a full and formal role to women using some such provision. Records and dates are however incomplete.
There are more limited alternative voting and official appointing systems that claim to be democratic. Some one-party states such as the People's Republic of China apply a limited form of disapproval voting that has the effect of signalling the acceptance of those promoted into new posts, who do not generally rise further if they do not receive very high (over 80%) acceptance.
Under perestroika, shortly before its collapse, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under Mikhail Gorbachev implemented reforms to allow multiple candidates, all from the local Communist Party, to run aganst each other. Such methods are not generally considered to provide equivalent political expression to a right to replace the entire top level of governments at once, as occurs in a multi-party system.
Another means of limited democracy is that practiced in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the right to run as a candidate is controlled by the religious authorities, who exclude among others the Communist Party and the Green Party of Iran. Recent elections in Iran have suffered from very low turnout.
In the United States of America, restrictions on right to vote due to property ownership or lack thereof and literacy were common until the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Today all but a few states deny the right to vote to those who have suffered a felony conviction at any point in their past.
In the European Union every citizen has the right to participate in the elections of the European Parliament. However, not every vote is counted equally: Voters from bigger countries are significantly underrepresented relative to voters from smaller countries. E.g., a vote from Luxembourg carries 12 times as much weight as does a vote from Germany.
No broad franchise has ever come into existence on its own in any country - all democracies in effect come into existence with a limited, elite, franchise, that only over time comes available to everyone, e.g. as in the Republic of South Africa.
Even the form and rituals associated with elections seem to make a genuinely democratic transition of power possible with much less violence and turmoil than if democratic mechanisms are simply put in place to replace a strict dictatorship - many such countries, e.g. Revolutionary France or modern Uganda or Iran, have simply lapsed back into at best limited democracy until the political maturity and education exists to support real majority rule.
Proponents of democracy argue that just as there is a special constitutional process for constitutional changes, there could be a distinction between legislation which would be handled through direct democracy and the modification of constitutional rights which would have a more deliberative procedure there attached, and thereby less vulnerable to the tyranny of the majority.
There are concerns about how such systems would scale to larger populations, in this subject there are a number of experiences being conducted all over the world to increase the direct participation of citizens in what is now a representative system:
Some modern political entities are closest to direct democracies, such as Switzerland or some U.S. States, where frequent use is made of referenda, and means are provided for referenda to be initiated by petition instead of by members of the legislature or the government.
There is another definition of democracy, particularly in constitutional theory and in historical usages and especially when considering the works of Aristotle or the American "Founding Fathers."
According to this definition, the word "democracy" refers solely to direct democracy, whilst a representative democracy is referred to as a "republic". This older terminology also has some popularity in U.S Conservative and Libertarian debate.
Modern definitions of the term Republic, however, refer to any State with an elective Head of State serving for a limited term, in contrast to most contemporary hereditary monarchies which are representative democracies and constitutional monarchies adhering to Parliamentarism. (Older elective monarchies are also not considered republics.)
Distinctions
Democratic governments can be divided into different types, based on a number of different distinctions. One such distinction is that between "direct" and "indirect" democracy.Direct democracy
A direct democracy is a political system in which all citizens are allowed to influence policy by means of a direct vote, or referendum, on any particular issue.Indirect democracy
Indirect democracy is a broad term describing a means of governance by the people through elected representatives. One critique of indirect democracy is that it centralizes power into the hands of a few, thereby increasing the likelihood of corruption in government. Moreover, while some contend indirect democracy eliminates demagoguery, there is little reason to believe the elected representatives are not themselves demagogues, or subject to the persuasive appeal of demagoguesRole of party
Some critics of representative democracy argue that party politics mean that representatives will be forced to follow the party line on issues, rather than either the will of their conscience or constituents. But it can also be argued that the electors have expressed their will in the election, which puts the emphasis on the program the candidate was elected on, which he then is supposed to follow. One emerging problem with representative democracies is the increasing cost of political campaigns which lends the candidates to making deals with well heeled supporters for legislation favorable to those supporters once the candidate is elected. Right to vote and to candidate
One important issue in a democracy is the limitations on rights to candidate and on suffrage or franchise - that is the decision as to who ought to be entitled to vote. In the Athenian democracy, slaves and women were prohibited from voting. These, and racial prohibitions, have been common in democracies. Often they are closely connected to legal personhood issues.Elections as rituals
Elections are not a sufficient condition for the existence of democracy, in fact elections can be used by totalitarian regimes or dictatorships to give a false sense of democracy. Some examples are 1960s right-wing military dicatorships in South America, left-wing totalitarian states like the USSR until 1991.Tyranny of the majority
When there is a very broad and inclusive franchise, but also on some issues with only a few elite voters, majority rule often gives rise to a fear of so-called "tyranny of the majority," i.e. fear of a majority empowered to do anything it wanted to an adversary minority. For example, it is theoretically possible for a majority to vote that a certain religion should be criminalized, and its members punished with death. Scaling to global Democracy
Direct democracy becomes more and more difficult, and necessarily more closely approximates representative democracy, as the number of citizens grows. Historically, the most direct democracies would include the New England town meeting, the political system of the ancient Greek city states and Oligarchy of Venice. Referenda and semi-direct democracy
We can view direct and indirect democracies as ideal types, with actual democracies approximating more closely to the one or the other, and such alternatives as semi-direct democracy in between."Democracy" versus "Republic"
The definition of the word "democracy" from the time of old Greece up to now has not been constant. According to most political scientists today (and most common English speakers), the term "democracy" refers to a government chosen by the people, whether it be direct or representative. Alternative models of democracy
Some believe that the distinction between direct and representative, or between broadly franchised majority rule, and more limited supervision of police and military primarily engaged in defending property rights, are not as important as the actual process by which decision making occurs. Some further consider the adversarial process implied by legalist mechanisms, e.g. Supreme Court challenges, election campaigns themselves, political party structures, to often obscure the larger opportunities the public may have, or the long-term dangers they may face, which are not amenable to the kind of quick-retort interplay that characterizes both direct and representative mans of governing. Some of the models that are proposed to reform it include:
There are also debates about street democracy and electoral reform which emphasize the more local and situated means by which the public comes to know the issues, and directly encounter the consequences of making major decisions. Some of these debates overlap with those about truth, anarchism, and the role of tolerances versus preferences in making major public decisions.See also
References
External Links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Democracy."
Synonyms: DemocracySynonyms: commonwealth (n), majority rule (n), republic (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: autocracy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Commonalty | Noun: commonalty, democracy; obscurity; low condition, low life, low society, low company; bourgeoisie; mass of the people, mass of society; Brown Jones and Robinson; lower classes, humbler classes, humbler orders; vulgar herd, common herd; rank and file, hoc genus omne; the many, the general,the crowd, the people, the populace, the multitude, the million, the masses, the mobility, the peasantry; king Mob; proletariat; fruges consumere nati, demos, hoi polloi, great unwashed; man in the street. |
Government | Monarchy; kinghood, kingship; royalty, regality; aristarchy, aristocracy; oligarchy, democracy, theocracy, demagogy; commonwealth; dominion; heteronomy; republic, republicanism; socialism; collectivism; mob law, mobocracy, ochlocracy; vox populi, imperium in imperio; bureaucracy; beadledom, bumbledom; stratocracy; military power, military government, junta; feodality, feudal system, feudalism. |
Democracy, republicanism; communism, statism, state socialism; socialism; conservatism, toryism; liberalism, whigism; theocracy; constitutional monarchy. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Democracy |
| English words defined with "democracy": Barbados ♦ Democracies, democratic, Democratism, Democraty ♦ eradicate, exterminate, extirpate ♦ fascism ♦ Independent State of Papua New Guinea ♦ Jacksonian ♦ Papua New Guinea, parliamentary democracy ♦ show window, showcase, side by side, social democracy ♦ uproot. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "democracy": Association for Progressive Communications ♦ democratic deficit ♦ Indian Ocean Islands ♦ right. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "democracy": Democraty ♦ Mobocracy, monocracy ♦ Nomocracy ♦ Pedantocracy, Plantocracy, Polycracy ♦ Slavocracy, Statocracy. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? (The Third Man; writing credit: Graham Greene; Alexander Korda) Hey Topper Harley, now that you've killed the bad guy and made the world safe for democracy, what are you going to do to cash in on your new found fame? (Hot Shots!; writing credit: Jim Abrahams; Pat Proft) We're here to preserve democracy, not practice it. (Crimson Tide; writing credit: Michael Schiffer. filmmaker Quentin Tarantino revised portions of the dialogue) Now do you want an apple or do you want an orange? That's democracy. (Election; writing credit: Alexander Payne) I've said it before, and I'll say it again: democracy just doesn't work! (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) | |
Clever | Democracy is three wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. (references; author: unknown) America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Universal Variety View 7353: Spirit of Democracy (1942) World Leaders On Peace and Democracy (1939) Democracy (1918) A Son of Democracy (1918) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | U. S. Army Hospital Number 101, St. Nazaire, France. : Democracy group cast from play given by nurses and enlisted men.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Grand banner of the radical democracy, for 1864.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | A war president. Progressive democracy.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The matinee line is a study in democracy.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | To make America safe for Democracy.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Randall holding coat tails of Morrison who is trying to cut "tariff" tree from route of "Democracy" wagon.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The busy "B's", what buzz beneath the bonnet of Dame Democracy.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Grand demonstration of the democracy in New York City, October 5, 1868.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Democracy of Americanism--an American president (Roosevelt) greeting an American workingman--Tennessee.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | This is the Dutch cruiser "de Ruyter," firing a salvo while on manuvers from its base at Sourabaya, on the island of Java, Netherlands East Indies. The bulk of the Dutch Navy is again in the battle for democracy, basing its operations at this strongly for.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Alexander Hamilton | Our real disease -- which is Democracy. |
George Bancroft | Democracy has given to conscience absolute liberty. |
James Russell Lowell | Democracy give every man the right to be his own oppressor. |
Oscar Wilde | Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. |
Plato | Democracy passes in to despotism. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors. |
Theodore Parker | Democracy means not "I'm as good as you are," but "you're as good as I am." |
Theodore Roosevelt | A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy. |
Thomas Jefferson | Information is the currency of democracy. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | By common-wealth, I must be understood all along to mean, not a democracy, or any form of government, but any independent community, which the Latines signified by the word civitas, to which the word which best answers in our language, is common-wealth, and most properly expresses such a society of men, which community or city in English does not; for there may be subordinate communities in a government; and city amongst us has a quite different notion from common-wealth: and therefore, to avoid ambiguity, I crave leave to use the word common-wealth in that sense, in which I find it used by King James the first; and I take it to be its genuine signification; which if any body dislike, I consent with him to change it for a better. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling as to win the battle of democracy. (reference) |
Winston S. Churchill | 1946 | It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. ("Iron Curtain" Speech) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | In this campaign, the object held out to the French soldier, son of democracy, was the conquest of a yoke for the neck of another. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Democracy activist Xu Shuiliang was also issued a passport in July. (references) | |
Mexico's record in internal union democracy and transparency is mixed. (references) | ||
The end of the Noriega regime brought democracy to Panama and a steady economic growth in the following years. (references) | ||
Children | Mexico | In August 2000, the President's Office announced that 90,000 children with disabilities were integrated into a regular education system between 1994 and 2000. In December 2000, the President established the Citizen's Commission Against Discrimination to be headed by former Social Democracy Party presidential candidate Rincon Gallardo. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Guatemala | The Citizens Movement for Justice and Democracy called for a demonstration at the courthouse. (references) |
Burma | In addition more than 100 monks were imprisoned in the 1990's for supporting democracy and human rights. (references) | |
Economic History | Ghana | Type: Democracy. (references) |
Malawi | Type: multi-party democracy. (references) | |
Panama | Type: Constitutional democracy. (references) | |
Human Rights | Cuba | Mena Gonzalez was the provincial coordinator of the Movement of Young Cubans for Democracy. (references) |
Namibia | Both the NSHR and the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID) maintained field offices in the Kavango region. (references) | |
Yugoslavia | The Center for Democracy and Human Rights reported that no action was taken to punish the officers involved. (references) | |
Political Economy | Taiwan | Taiwan is a multiparty democracy. (references) |
Latvia | Latvia is a parliamentary democracy. (references) | |
Estonia | Estonia is a parliamentary democracy. (references) | |
Political Rights | Portugal | Portugal is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. (references) |
Turkmenistan | The 1992 Constitution declares the country to be a secular democracy in the form of a presidential republic. (references) | |
Niger | The 1999 coup led to the installation of a military-led government, which instituted a 9-month transition to a democracy. (references) | |
Trade | Nigeria | With the return of democracy to Nigeria there are a number of United States Government agencies which make available financing for feasibility studies (TDA - Trade and Development Agency); Trade financing for importing American products and services (EXIM BANK - Export-Import Bank); and investment funding (OPIC - Overseas Private Investment Corporation). (references) |
Travel | Kenya | Safety and Security: Kenya became a multi-party democracy in late 1991, and its political institutions are still developing. (references) |
Cote D'ivoire | Although you may be curious, large gatherings of people and political demonstrations can be volatile in a developing democracy like Cte d'Ivoire. (references) | |
Women | Uganda | Women as Partners for Peace-Uganda sponsored a forum to discuss democracy and conflict resolution. (references) |
Paraguay | Several groups work to improve conditions for women, including Women for Democracy, which is active in civic and electoral education. (references) | |
Georgia | According to a poll conducted in 1998 by the NGO Women for Democracy, younger women reported that spousal abuse occurs frequently but rarely is reported or punished because of social taboos against raising the problem outside of the family. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Tunisia | While regional and sector-specific unions operate with more independence, the central UGTT leadership generally follows a policy of cooperation with the Government regarding its economic reform program, although throughout the year the UGTT board, which took charge in September 2000, began to exercise greater independence regarding economic and social issues and to support greater democracy in the country. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | RIGHT, n. Legitimate authority to be, to do or to have; as the right to be a king, the right to do one's neighbor, the right to have measles, and the like. The first of these rights was once universally believed to be derived directly from the will of God; and this is still sometimes affirmed in partibus infidelium outside the enlightened realms of Democracy; as the well known lines of Sir Abednego Bink, following: By what right, then, do royal rulers rule? Whose is the sanction of their state and pow'r? He surely were as stubborn as a mule Who, God unwilling, could maintain an hour His uninvited session on the throne, or air His pride securely in the Presidential chair. Whatever is is so by Right Divine; Whate'er occurs, God wills it so. Good land! It were a wondrous thing if His design A fool could baffle or a rogue withstand! If so, then God, I say (intending no offence) Is guilty of contributory negligence. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Al Hunt | Senator Hagel, several times you've mentioned that we ought to examine what a post-Saddam Iraq would look like. The vice president said he would envision a post-Saddam Iraq that would be a democracy, that would respect human rights. |
Bill Clinton | Our of Democracy must be not only the envy of the world, but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. |
Dennis Miller | They're a democracy trying to abide by Western norms in a region that does not play by those rules. |
Dick Cheney | Protest to protect. I mean, that's the strength of our democracy. People can take to the streets and agree, disagree, demonstrate. As long as they're peaceful, I think it's a sign of a healthy society. |
John Major | Well, I don't think it will be a quick in and out at all. I mean, Iraq is not a natural democracy and I think the troops that arrive there as liberators may well find themselves staying there for some time as peacekeepers. |
Mark Shields | The other thing is that Henry Hyde did not join those who say this is a war for freedom and democracy, he said we are in bed with some pretty unsavory characters because it's a war against terrorism, and we ought to hold our nose and join arms. |
Rush Limbaugh | It's absurd to say that democracy isn't for Muslims. |
Yasser Arafat | See, you haven't the right to ask me this question. You have to respect the democracy. What will be the result of the election, we will respect it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | Events have brought our American democracy to new influence and new responsibilities. |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | We are deeply convinced that the future lies not with dictatorship but democracy. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | Now we are standing inside this symbol of our democracy. |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | It's doing the things that give democracy meaning. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy. |
George W. Bush | 2001-2005 | Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Democracy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.36% of the time. "Democracy" is used about 3,726 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.36% | 3,702 | 2,624 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.56% | 21 | 76,261 |
| Noun (common) | 0.08% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 3,726 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "democracy": industrial democracy ♦ parliamentary democracy ♦ people's democracy ♦ pluralistic democracy ♦ social democracy. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "democracy": democracy-haters, democracy-labour, Democracy-movement, democracy-society, democracy-would. | |
Ending with "democracy": liberal-democracy, pro-democracy, pseudo-democracy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "democracy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | demokrasie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | demokraci, shtet demokratik. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الروح الديموقراطية, ديمقراطية, دولة ديموقراطية. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | демокрация, демократизъм. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 民主 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | demokracie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | demokrati. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | democratie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | demokratio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | حکومت قاطبه مردم , دموکراسی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | demokratia, kansanvaltaisuus, kansanvalta. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | démocratie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | demokrasy. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | demokratie (demokracy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | δημοκρατία (republic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | "מוקרטי". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | demokrácia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | demokrasi, kerakyatan (populist, rule by the people). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | democrazia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | デポジット制度 (demagogue, demand, demand bus, demerit, demi-, Deming, demi-tasse, demo, democrat, democratic, demodulator, demographic, demonstration, demonstration tape, Depo-provera, deposit system, devilish, rumor)), 民本主義 , 民" (civil government), 民権主義 , 民主主義 , 平民主義 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | デモクラシー , み"しゅしゅぎ, み"ぽ"しゅぎ, み"せい (civil government, civilian, consumer, Democratic Youth League of Japan, people's welfare or livelihood), み"け"しゅぎ, へいみ"しゅぎ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 민주주의 (Democracies, Democratic, Democratical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | deynlaght. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | demokrati. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | demokrasia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | emocracyday democracia. (various references) democratism (democratism), democraţie. (various references) демократия. (various references) demokratija. (various references) democracia. (various references) folkvälde, demokrati. (various references) demokratik parti, demokrasi. (various references) demokratsiяa (r). (various references) прості люди, демократія, демократична держава, демократизм. (various references) nền dân chủ. (various references) democratiaeth, gweriniaeth (republic), gwerin (crew, men, people). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Democracy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Decomcracy, Demeraby, democacry, democarcy, demochracy, democracey, democract, de'mocracy, democracyr, democrasy, Democray, democrcy, democricy, democrisy, demodracy, Demokrasi, demoncracy, Demornay, denocracy, Domocracia. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "democracy" (pronounced di'mÄ"krusē) |
| 6 | -Ä" k r u s ē | aristocracy, autocracy, bureaucracy, hypocrisy, theocracy. |
| 5 | -k r u s ē | meritocracy, secrecy. |
| 4 | -r u s ē | conspiracy, heresy, leprosy, piracy, pleurisy. |
| 3 | -u s ē | accuracy, adequacy, advocacy, Argosy, candidacy, celibacy, confederacy, courtesy, degeneracy, delicacy, diplomacy, ecstasy, embassy, fallacy, fantasy, Geodesy, idiocy, illegitimacy, illiteracy, immediacy, inaccuracy, inadequacy, intimacy, intricacy, jealousy, legacy, legitimacy, literacy, lunacy, obstinacy, Odyssey, papacy, pharmacy, policy, primacy, privacy, prophecy, supremacy, surrogacy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-d-e-m-o-r-y" | |
-2 letters: caromed, comrade. | |
-3 letters: accord, comade, comedy, creamy, dreamy, radome, roamed. | |
-4 letters: acred, adore, arced, armed, cadre, cameo, cared, carom, cedar, codec, coder, comae, comer, cored, coyed, coyer, cream, credo, cycad, cyder, cymae, cymar, deary, decay, decor, decoy, decry, deray, derma, dormy, dream, maced, macer, macro, madre, mayed, mayor, mecca, mercy, morae, moray, oared. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-c-d-e-m-o-r-y" | |
+5 letters: democratically, electrodynamic, hydromechanics. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 65 6D 6F 63 72 61 63 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. . -- --- -.-. .-. .- -.-. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01100101 01101101 01101111 01100011 01110010 01100001 01100011 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D e m o c r a c y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0065 006D 006F 0063 0072 0061 0063 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)387179816984676991 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Quotations: Speeches 14. Usage Frequency 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Orthography 22. Bibliography |
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