Adjacent Words

Democracy definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEMOCRACY, n. [Gr. People, and to possess, to govern.] Government by the people; a form of government, in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively, or in which the people exercise the powers of legislation. Such was the government of Athens.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: 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 [syn: democracy, republic, commonwealth]
3: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group [syn: majority rule, democracy]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -cies) Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek d?mokratia, from d?mos + -kratia -cracy Date: 1576 1. a. government by the people; especially rule of the majority b. a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections 2. a political unit that has a democratic government 3. capitalized the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States <from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy — C. M. Roberts> 4. the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority 5. the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a a system of government by the whole population, usu. through elected representatives. b a State so governed. c any organization governed on democratic principles. 2 a classless and tolerant form of society. 3 US a the principles of the Democratic Party. b its members. Etymology: F démocratie f. LL democratia f. Gk demokratia f. demos the people + -CRACY

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Democracy De*moc"ra*cy, n.; pl. Democracies. [F. d['e]mocratie, fr. Gr. dhmokrati`a; dh^mos the people + kratei^n to be strong, to rule, kra`tos strength.] 1. Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people. 2. Government by popular representation; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic. 3. Collectively, the people, regarded as the source of government. --Milton. 4. The principles and policy of the Democratic party, so called. [U.S.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(democracies) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Democracy is a system of government in which people choose their rulers by voting for them in elections. ...the spread of democracy in Eastern Europe. ...the pro-democracy movement. N-UNCOUNT 2. A democracy is a country in which the people choose their government by voting for it. The new democracies face tough challenges. N-COUNT: usu supp N 3. Democracy is a system of running organizations, businesses, and groups in which each member is entitled to vote and take part in decisions. ...the union's emphasis on industrial democracy. N-UNCOUNT: usu supp N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Government by the people. 2. Republic, representative government. 3. [U. S.] Democrats, democratic party.

Foolish Dictionary

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.

Moby Thesaurus

absolute monarchy, aristocracy, autarchy, autocracy, autonomy, coalition government, collective farm, collectivism, collectivity, collegiality, colonialism, common ownership, commonwealth, communal effort, communion, communism, community, constitutional government, constitutional monarchy, cooperation, cooperative society, dictatorship, dominion rule, duarchy, duumvirate, dyarchy, federal government, federation, feudal system, garrison state, gerontocracy, heteronomy, hierarchy, hierocracy, home rule, kibbutz, kolkhoz, limited monarchy, martial law, meritocracy, militarism, military government, mob rule, mobocracy, monarchy, neocolonialism, ochlocracy, oligarchy, pantisocracy, patriarchate, patriarchy, police state, profit sharing, public ownership, pure democracy, regency, representative democracy, representative government, republic, self-determination, self-government, sharecropping, social democracy, socialism, state ownership, stratocracy, technocracy, thearchy, theocracy, totalitarian government, totalitarian regime, town meeting, triarchy, triumvirate, tyranny, welfare state