Meaning of tyranny in English

tyranny
noun [ U ]
uk
/ˈtɪr.ən.i/ us
/ˈtɪr.ən.i/
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government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state and use it unfairly and cruelly:
This, the president promised us, was a war against tyranny.
a situation in which someone or something controls how you are able to live, in an unfair way:
Women, the play seems to suggest, must resist the tyranny of domesticity.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Systems of government
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(Definition of tyranny from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

tyranny | American Dictionary

tyranny
noun [ C/U ]
us
/ˈtɪr·ə·ni/
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social studies
unlimited authority or use of power, or a government which exercises such power without any control or limits

tyrannical

adjective us
/tɪˈræn·ɪ·kəl/
American revolutionaries believed the British government was tyrannical.

tyrannize

verb [ T ] us
/ˈtɪr·əˌnɑɪz/
In school, he was the big bully who tyrannized the whole playground.

tyrant

noun [ C ] us
/ˈtɑɪ·rənt/
Their father was a tyrant, feared by all his children.
(Definition of tyranny from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of tyranny

tyranny
Faith, certainty, dogmas, anathemas, prayers, prohibitions, orders, taboos, tyrannies, wars and glories overwhelmed the order of things.
From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English
Even in some democratic areas—certainly in some tyrannies—civil wars, ethnic conflicts or other internecine strife predominate.
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Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We felt that it weakened our argument all over the world, where we had to stand up against other injustice and tyrannies.
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We know of "people's democracies"and allegedly"democratic" republics which are no more than tyrannies.
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
One of the most dangerous of all tyrannies is to prevent a person from leaving a country to work and live abroad.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
He has talked as though something new was being done, something which will be creating precedent and setting up tyrannies.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
As a result of that fear, it allows tyrannies to flourish.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
If they ever suffer from these tyrannies it will be because they did not employ proper counsel to draft their schemes for them.
From the
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
I make no apology for saying that the international community as such has on many occasions turned a blind eye to tyrannies.
From the
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
The triple tyrannies of the diet, fashion and health industries have conspired to give us a wholly misleading idea of what a healthy weight is.
From the
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Tyrannies have always been afraid of free artistic expression.
From the
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
In this country we have dealt with a great many tyrannies, one after the other.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
There are undoubtedly a number of tyrannies—far too many, in fact.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Do you think they would stand for the awful tyrannies and tragedies of the various marketing boards in this country?
From the
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Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
While we are on the subject of tyrannies abroad, it may be worth turning to the issues in part 5.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
See all examples of tyranny
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of tyranny?
 
B1

Translations of tyranny

in Chinese (Traditional)
暴政，專制統治, 暴虐，專橫…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
暴政，专制统治, 暴虐，专横…
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in Spanish
tiranía…
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in Portuguese
tirania…
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in more languages
in Turkish
in French
in Dutch
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Ukrainian
in Russian
zorbalık, zulüm, eziyet…
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tyrannie…
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tirannie…
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tyranie…
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tyranni…
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tirani…
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การปกครองซึ่งกดขี่…
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sự bạo ngược…
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tyrania…
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kezaliman…
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die Tyrannei…
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tyranni…
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тиранія, деспотизм…
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тирания…
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