Word family noun authority authorization authoritarian authoritarianism adjective authoritarian authoritative authorized ≠ unauthorized verb authorize adverb authoritatively
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishauthoritarianau‧thor‧i‧tar‧i‧an /ɔːˌθɒrəˈteəriən◂ $ ɒːˌθɑːrəˈter-, əˌθɔː-/ ●○○ adjective STRICTstrictly forcing people to obey a set of rules or laws, especially ones that are wrong or unfair an authoritarian government Critics claim his management has become too authoritarian.► see thesaurus at strict —authoritarian noun [countable] —authoritarianism noun [uncountable]Examples from the Corpus
authoritarian• His management style has been criticized as authoritarian.• It is also authoritarian and hierarchical.• His real style, they believe, is authoritarian and his policies excessively sympathetic to the armed forces.• And my excessively tidy and authoritarian behaviour shows that I was striving to be the person the school wanted me to be.• Many people are now demanding a more democratic and less authoritarian form of government.• Their father was authoritarian in the home, insisting on total obedience.• The concept of authoritarian population implies, for Jessop etal., a monolithic, relatively stable and widely supported form of government.• an extreme right-wing, authoritarian regime• Citizens are not permitted to question the political institutions, procedures, or value allocations of an authoritarian regime.• Once discredited in economic terms, authoritarian regimes tend to lose their grip. 