oligarchy
noun
Simple meaning
A government run by and for only a few, often the aristocracy, the wealthy, or their friends and associates.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahluhgahrkeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑləɡɑɹki
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A government run by and for only a few, often the aristocracy, the wealthy, or their friends and associates.
A state ruled by such a government.
Those who make up an oligarchic government.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A government run by and for only a few, often the aristocracy, the wealthy, or their friends and associates.
Used this way, oligarchy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use oligarchy
- “One of his cardinal convictions was that Britain was not run as a democracy but as an oligarchy.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- democracynoun
- tyrannynoun
- dictatorshipnoun
- monarchynoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.