kakistocracy
/kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.06 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
Example Sentences
- "Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against […] those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy."
- "The people lived in darkness and vassalage. […] they were utterly destitute of the blessing of those "schools for all," the house of correction, and the treadmill, wherein the autochthonal justice of our agrestic kakistocracy now castigates the heinous sins which were then committed with impunity, […]"
- "Is ours a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?"
- "Thus, the problem was not whether corruption/power abuse was allowed, but how to keep a balance between uprightness and kakistocracy."
- "Some nation-states have suffered what the Greeks called kakistocracy—government by the worst of men. International law can, in theory if not always in practice, keep these kakistocracies from damaging too much."
- "As we step into this world—as we enter the age of kakistocracy—we should remember one thing. This isn’t a departure from [Donald] Trump's populism. It's the foundation of it. This is what Trump campaigned on."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -cracy). The word was used, perhaps re-coined, by the English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) in his 1829 novella The Misfortunes of Elphin as the opposite of aristocracy (see second quotation).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: κάκιστος
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/
- British English: /kækɪsˈtɒkɹəsi/