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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dictator.

An authoritarian leader of a country, nation, or government.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪkˈteɪtə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɪkˌteɪtəɹ/General-American[-ɾəɹ]General-American/ˌdɪkˈteɪtəɹ/General-American, dated
  1. An authoritarian leader of a country, nation, or government.

  2. A magistrate without colleague in republican Ancient Rome, who held full executive authority for a term granted by the Senate, typically to conduct a war.

  3. A tyrannical boss or authority figure.

  4. Misspelling of dictater.

    alt-of · misspelling
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *déyḱeti Proto-Italic *deikō Latin dīcō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -tō Latin dictō Proto-Indo-European *-tōr Proto-Italic *-tōr Latin -tor Latin dictātorbor. English dictator From Latin dictātor (“a chief magistrate”), from dictō (“dictate, prescribe”), from dīcō (“say, speak”). By surface analysis, dictate + -or, literally “one who dictates”. Compare Old English tictator (“absolute ruler of the Roman Republic”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.