-crat, -cracy, -cratic, -cratism, -cratically, -cracies

1. A monarch of uncontrolled or unrestricted power; one who rules with undisputed jurisdiction: The new owner of the company Jake worked for was an autocrat who demanded absolute obedience by his employees.
2. A person who is invested with or assumes unlimited authority with any relationship: Adam's daughter, Susan, called him an unreasonable autocrat. © ALL rights are reserved.
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Of the nature of, or pertaining to someone who has absolute authority; referring to a despotic ruler: A few autocratic rulers in the past were Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Queen Elizabeth I. Today Vladimir Putin is considered to be an autocratic leader.

The way a regime is ruled by a despot with absolute authority, despotism: Autocratism is the manner in which a government is ruled by only one person who has unlimited power.

A government or rule by barbarians: Barbarocracy can be exemplified by that of Italy in the past or by the German emperors.

1. Administration of a government chiefly through departments which are staffed with non-elected officials: The entrenched bureaucracies in the government have caused many delays in processing important payments to those who are entitled to tax refunds.
2. The management or administration which is marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: Some government offices are accused of being a rigid bureaucracy and thus impeding or slowing down actions because of their overly strict adherence to rules or regulations.

To satisfy the government bureaucracy, James and Jane had to fill out several different forms and then they had to wait for some weeks before they obtained the payment that they had coming to them.

3. An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow rigid or complex procedures interferes with efficient and effective actions: Innovative or new ideas too often get bogged down in red tape in a bureaucracy.

Too often bureaucracies insist on going through rigid routines, resulting in delays in making decisions or in carrying out requests. This is also known as "red tape" which comes from the former use of red or pink tape to tie up or to seal official documents for security reasons.

Too often a bureaucracy is where more is said than is actually done.

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Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
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Referring to the actions of governments by a mixture of officials who often collectively hinder the efficiency of results: Bureaucratic procedures most often involve complicated rules and cause very long and frustrating delays in getting things accomplished.

Bureaucratic rule can be exemplified by “desks” or government officials who "govern the desks".

A system of administration including a group of non-elective government officials and a directorial policy-making group: Bureaucratism is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned.

A public administration in many countries are examples of bureaucratisms, but so is the centralized hierarchical structure of a business firm.

In the United States military establishment, bureaucratisms involve the civil service with government workers and officials who are usually hired on the basis of competitive examinations.

The shopkeeping interest or class: Capelocracies are businesses which are controlled or governed by shopkeepers.

A new government that makes laws, rules, regulations, collects taxes, and prints money: There often are newly organized legislatures or cenocracies which are created by citizens in many countries.

1. A new government for the people: In the story, Meg read that the people on the island wanted to have a cenodemocracy to replace the present one they did not like anymore.
2. Etymology: from Greek kainos = ceno, "new, recent" + Greek demokratia, "popular government" from demos, "common people".

A government or country that is ruled with "strong hands" or by physical force: There are some people who maintain that certain countries have always been cheirocracies or chirocracies.

Some people maintain that China has always been a chirocracy, and if this is true, there are also many other countries that fit this description.

Examples of additional nations that practice cheirocracy include North Korea, some Arabic countries, and even former President Trump of the U.S.A. who restricted immigrants coming in from Mexico with military forces.

A government of a nation by a single race: Chromatocracy can be explained as being a ruling class of a particular skin color, for example of white people, black people, or oriental people.

Rule of the wealthy; a plutocracy: A chrysocracy is considered a governing power or ruling of a country by those who have the gold to back up their wealth and strong political influences.

Government control, or rule, of the whole world: In the fantasy book Lois was reading, everybody agreed on having a cosmocracy, or global government, and a world with peace and without war.

A ruler of the world, or a prince of the Earth: Arthur thought that only a god could be a cosmocrat and govern the world, but never a human being.