tyrant

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a cruel and oppressive dictator
  2. noun in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it
  3. noun any person who exercises power in a cruel way

Etymology

From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin.

In classic literature

Synonyms

autocrat, despot

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