Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Despotic |
DespoticAdjective1. Belonging to or having the characteristics of a despot. 2. Ruled by or characteristic of a despot; "moved from a feudal to a despotic order"; "his administration was arrogant and despotic". 3. Characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty; "an authoritarian regime"; "autocratic government"; "despotic rulers"; "a dictatorial rule that lasted for the duration of the war"; "a tyrannical government". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "despotic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1671. (references) |
Synonyms: DespoticSynonyms: authoritarian (adj), autocratic (adj), despotical (adj), dictatorial (adj), tyrannical (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Illegality | Lawless, arbitrary; despotic, despotical; corrupt, summary, irresponsible; unanswerable, unaccountable. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Despotic |
| English words defined with "despotic": Arbitrarious ♦ Hobbism. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "despotic": Gander-month. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Despotic" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (arbitrarily, arbitrary, despotic, despotically, domineering, oppressive, oppressively). |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Joseph Addison | But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Despotic" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Despotic" is used about 38 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 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 38 | 55,818 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "despotic": despotic behaviour ♦ despotic network ♦ despotic synchronised network ♦ despotic synchronized network. Additional references. | |
| 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. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
despotic | 10 |
despotic emperor | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "despotic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | despotik (high handed, oppressive). (various references) | |
Arabic | مستبد (absolute, despot, dictatorial, domineering, highhanded, imperious, masterful, tyrannical), طغيانى, إستبدادى. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | деспотичен (bossy, domineering, heavy-handed, masterful, peremptory, tyrannical). (various references) | |
Chinese | 专制 (Despotical). (various references) | |
Czech | despotický (arbitrary, oppressive, tyrannical), tyranský (bullying, heavy-handed, oppressive, tyrannical, tyrannous). (various references) | |
Danish | despotisk synkronisering (despotic synchronization), despotisk synkroniseret net (despotic network, despotic synchronised network, despotic synchronized network), despotisk net (despotic network, despotic synchronised network, despotic synchronized network). (various references) | |
Dutch | despotisch, heerszuchtig. (various references) | |
Esperanto | despota. (various references) | |
Farsi | مستبدانه (Arbitrary). (various references) | |
Finnish | despoottinen, hirmuvaltainen (terroristic, tyrannical). (various references) | |
French | despotique. (various references) | |
German | despotisch (domineering), machthaberisch. (various references) | |
Greek | απολυταρχικόσ (absolute, absolutist, authoritarian, autocratic, autocratical, totalitarian), αυταρχικόσ (autocratic, autocratical, bossy, imperious, magisterial, officious, overbearing, peremptory, self-assertive), τυρρανικός, τυραννικόσ (compulsive, domineering, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous), δεσποτικός (autocrat, imperious). (various references) | |
Hebrew | רודני (dictatorial, imperious, totalitarian, tyrannical). (various references) | |
Hungarian | zsarnoki (autocratic, autocratical, heavy-handed, imperious, masterful, procrustean, tyrannical, tyrannous). (various references) | |
Indonesian | lalim (cruel, tyrannical). (various references) | |
Italian | dispotico (arbitrary, domineering). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 圧制的 (oppressive). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | あっせいてき (oppressive). (various references) | |
Manx | tranlaasagh (despot, oppress, oppressive, oppressiveness, oppressor, persecute, persecutor, tyrannical, tyrannize, tyrannous, tyrant). (various references) | |
Papiamen | despótiko. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | espoticday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | despótico (oppressive). (various references) | |
Romanian | despotic (arbitrarily, arbitrary, despotically, domineering, oppressive, oppressively), tiranic (cruel, despotically, domineering, heavy-handed, oppressive, severe, tyrannical, tyrannous), samavolnic (arbitrarily, arbitrary, high handed). (various references) | |
Russian | принудительный;деспотичный, деспотический (domineering, oppressive). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | despotski (oppressive, tyrannical), tiranski (oppressive, tyrannical, tyrannous). (various references) | |
Spanish | despótico (overbearing). (various references) | |
Swedish | despotisk (authoritarian, domineering). (various references) | |
Turkish | despotça (despotical), despot (autocratic, autocratical, despot, despotical, tyrant), zorbaca (despotical, ruffianly). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | самовладний (absolute, autocratic, autocratical, despotical), тиранічний (despotical, satrapic, satrapical, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous), деспотичний (arbitrary, autocratic, autocratical, despotical, domineering, imperious, oppressive, satrapic, satrapical, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | chuyên quyền; bạo ngược, chuyên chế (totalitarian, tyrannic, tyrannical, tyrannous). (various references) | |
Welsh | unbenaethol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "despotic": despotically. (additional references) | |
| |
"Despotic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: despote, despotis, Discotech, dispotic, dystopic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "despotic" (pronounced di'spÄ"tik) |
| 4 | -Ä" t i k | antibiotic, aquatic, astronautic, chaotic, erotic, exotic, hypnotic, idiotic, narcotic, neurotic, patriotic, psychotic, quixotic, robotic, semiotic, symbiotic, unpatriotic. |
| 3 | -t i k | acetic, acoustic, acrobatic, aerobatic, aesthetic, agnostic, alphabetic, altruistic, amniotic, anachronistic, analytic, anesthetic, antagonistic, Antarctic, antic, anticlimactic, antiseptic, aortic, apathetic, apocalyptic, apologetic, apoplectic, arctic, aristocratic, arithmetic, aromatic, arthritic, artistic, ascetic, asthmatic, asymptomatic, atavistic, atheistic, athletic, attic, authentic, autistic, autocratic, automatic, axiomatic, ballistic, bombastic, bureaucratic, capitalistic, catalytic, cathartic, caustic, characteristic, charismatic, chauvinistic, chiropractic, cinematic, climactic, climatic, coloristic, cosmetic, critic, cryptic, cultic, cystic, democratic, dendritic, deterministic, diabetic, diagnostic, diagrammatic, dialectic, diamagnetic, didactic, dietetic, diplomatic, diuretic, dogmatic, domestic, dramatic, drastic, drumstick, dualistic, dynastic, ecclesiastic, eclectic, ecliptic, ecstatic, elastic, electrolytic, electromagnetic, electrostatic, emblematic, emetic, empathetic, emphatic, energetic, enigmatic, enthusiastic, enzymatic, epigenetic, epileptic, erratic, euphemistic, evangelistic, expressionistic, extragalactic, fanatic, fantastic, fatalistic, ferromagnetic, feudalistic, fiberoptic, frantic, frenetic, futuristic, galactic, genetic, geomagnetic, gigantic, granitic, gymnastic, halophytic, hectic, hedonistic, hemolytic, hepatic, heretic, hermaphroditic, holistic, homeostatic, homiletic, humanistic, hyperkinetic, iconoclastic, idealistic, idiomatic, idiosyncratic, imperialistic, impressionistic, individualistic, inelastic, interscholastic, jingoistic, journalistic, kinesthetic, kinetic, lactic, legalistic, linguistic, logistic, lymphatic, magnetic, majestic, masochistic, materialistic, mathematic, mechanistic, melodramatic, militaristic, monastic, monochromatic, monopolistic, moralistic, mystic, narcissistic, nationalistic, naturalistic, neritic, novelistic, numismatic, oligopolistic, onomastic, operatic, opportunistic, optic, optimistic, orthodontic, pancreatic, pantheistic, paralytic, paramagnetic, parasitic, parasympathetic, parthenogenetic, paternalistic, pathetic, patristic, pectic, pedantic, peptic, peripatetic, pessimistic, phonetic, phosphatic, plastic, pluralistic, pneumatic, poetic, polytheistic, porphyritic, posttraumatic, pragmatic, primitivistic, prismatic, problematic, programmatic, propagandistic, prophetic, prophylactic, prostatic, prosthetic, psychoanalytic, psychosomatic, psychotherapeutic, puristic, realistic, relativistic, rheumatic, ritualistic, romantic, rustic, sadistic, sarcastic, schematic, scholastic, semantic, semiautomatic, sensationalistic, septic, simplistic, skeptic, socialistic, static, statistic, stylistic, surrealistic, sycophantic, sympathetic, symptomatic, synergistic, synthetic, systematic, tactic, technocratic, terroristic, thematic, theocratic, therapeutic, thermoplastic, thrombolytic, transatlantic, traumatic, triptych, unapologetic, unauthentic, uncharacteristic, undemocratic, undiplomatic, unenthusiastic, unrealistic, unsympathetic, voyeuristic. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-i-o-p-s-t" | |
-1 letter: cestoid, coedits, depicts, deposit, discept, dopiest, picoted, podites, poetics, posited, sopited, topside. | |
-2 letters: cestoi, coedit, copied, copies, cosied, costed, depict, depots, despot, dicots, edicts, optics, picots, podite, poetic, poised, posted, potsie, psocid, scoped, septic, sopite, spiced, spited, stiped, stoped, todies, topics. | |
-3 letters: cedis, cesti, cited, cites, codes, coeds, coped, copes, copse, coset, cosie. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-d-e-i-o-p-s-t" | |
+1 letter: copyedits, depictors. | |
+2 letters: adipocytes, composited, coscripted, deceptions, depictions, descriptor, predictors, stockpiled. | |
+3 letters: conscripted, constipated, copresident, decryptions, description, descriptors, miscomputed, nondescript, orthopedics, politicised, postdivorce, predictions, topstitched. | |
+4 letters: computerised, copresidents, decapitators, deprecations, depreciators, descriptions, despotically, diaphoretics, dipterocarps, directorship, introspected, miscaptioned, mucopeptides, nondescripts, octapeptides, orthopaedics, periodontics, postaccident, postcardlike, predications. | |
+5 letters: cardiopathies, counterpoised, decapitations, decomposition, depoliticizes, depreciations, directorships, dodecaphonist, encyclopedist, endoparasitic, glycopeptides, periodicities, perissodactyl, polydactylies, preconditions, predilections, preinductions, privatdocents, propaedeutics, redescription, reproductions, reproductives, sophisticated. | |
| 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. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
