autocrat

noun

au·​to·​crat ˈȯ-tə-ˌkrat 

1

: a person (such as a monarch) ruling with unlimited authority

2

: one who has undisputed influence or power

He was the autocrat of his household.

Synonyms

• monarch
• potentate
• ruler
• sovereign
• sovran

Examples of autocrat in a Sentence

European autocrats once commonly believed that they had received the right to rule directly from God.

Recent Examples on the Web

The country’s autocrat, Nicolás Maduro, is set to be sworn in for a third term as president on Friday. —Julie Turkewitz, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025

Production in the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer was repeatedly stalled by the months-long violence, before protesters forced long-time autocrat Sheikh Hasina to flee in August. —Chloe Berger, Fortune Asia, 9 Jan. 2025

Even leading Western democracies produced their own fascists and would-be autocrats, such as Sir Oswald Mosley in Britain or Huey Long or Father Coughlin in the United States. —Margaret MacMillan, Foreign Affairs, 7 Jan. 2025

Fans of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—a small-time autocrat who has impoverished his country, now one of the poorest in Europe, while enriching his family and friends—make common cause with Americans who have broken the law, gone to jail, stolen from their own charities, or harassed women. —Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French & Greek; French autocrate, borrowed from Greek autokratḗs "ruling by itself (of a mind), with sole authority (for a task)," from auto- auto- + -kratēs, adjective derivative of kratéō, krateîn "to be strong or powerful, have command, rule," derivative of krátos "strength, power, authority" — more at hard entry 1

Note: The Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, notes that the earliest English attestation of autocrat, from 1762, precedes the earliest French attestation by six years. The source in question, the newspaper The Public Advertiser, uses the word as part of the title of Catherine II, "Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias." "Autocrat" here most likely translates, with the loss of the feminine suffix, French autocratrice, a word used in the French titles of three Russian empresses: Anna (1730-40), Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-62), and Catherine (1762-1796). The masculine correspondent was autocrateur, which corresponds not to Greek autokratḗs, but rather to the adjective autokrátōr, which is better attested in ancient Greek in a wider array of meanings: "independent, with full authority, in control, with sole authority," and in the early Roman empire is used as the Greek equivalent of Latin imperātor (see imperator, emperor). Indeed, though the etymology above showing borrowing from autokratḗs is formally acceptable, English autocrate may more likely be a back-formation from autocracy (in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the meanings "self-control" and "absolute power," and also spelled autocrasy, autocraty) (compare aristocrat, democrat). The Russian equivalents of French autocrateur and autocratrice were samoderžec and samoderžica (compare samoderžavie "autocracy"), which themselves represent calques on Greek autokrátōr, though at a much earlier period (Old Church Slavic samodrŭžĭcĭ, samodrŭžitelĭ, from samo- "self" and drŭžati "to hold, have, control").

First Known Use

1762, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

autocrat

noun

au·​to·​crat ˈȯt-ə-ˌkrat 

: a person who rules with unlimited authority