autocracy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a political system governed by a single individual
    autarchy.
  2. noun a political theory favoring unlimited authority by a single individual

WordNet

Au*toc"ra*cy noun
Etymology
Gr. : cf. F. autocratie. See Autocrat.
Wordforms
plural Autocracies
Definitions
  1. Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling authority; supremacy.
    The divine will moves, not by the external impulse or inclination of objects, but determines itself by an absolute autocracy. South.
  2. Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.
  3. Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a state); autonomy. Barlow.
  4. (Med.) The action of the vital principle, or of the instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the individual; also, the vital principle. In this sense, written also autocrasy. Dunglison.

Webster 1913