anarchy

English

Etymology

From New Latin anarchia, from Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈæ.nə.ki/
  • (US) enPR: ănʹär-kē, IPA(key): /ˈæn.ɑɹ.ki/

Noun

anarchy (countable and uncountable, plural anarchies)

  1. (uncountable) The state of a society being without authorities or an authoritative governing body.
  2. (uncountable) Anarchism; the political theory that a community is best organized by the voluntary cooperation of individuals, rather than by a government, which is regarded as being coercive by nature.
  3. (countable) A chaotic and confusing absence of any form of political authority or government.
  4. Confusion in general; disorder.

Usage notes

  • (confusion or misunderstanding in general): Anarchists feel it is inappropriate to use anarchy to mean “a state of chaos or confusion”. However, this has historically been a common use of the word.
  • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:anarchy.

Synonyms

  • see Thesaurus:disorder

Antonyms

  • (all senses): nonanarchy (rare)
  • (disorder): order

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.