totalitarianism
totalitarianism Lexical Profile
totalitarianism Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A system of government that is centralized and dictatorial, requiring complete subservience to the state and exercising absolute control over public and private life.
"George Orwell's novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' serves as a famous literary warning against the dangers of totalitarianism."
Word Nuance & Usage
While often used interchangeably with 'authoritarianism', 'totalitarianism' denotes a much more extreme system in which the state seeks total control over private life, personal beliefs, and cultural expression, whereas an authoritarian regime primarily demands political obedience.
• Rhymes for totalitarianism
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the 1920s from the Italian 'totalitario', a term first used by anti-fascist critic Giovanni Amendola in 1923 to describe Benito Mussolini's political ambitions and later adopted by the Italian Fascists themselves.