dictator

• dictatour (obsolete)

From Latin dictātor (“a chief magistrate”), from dictō (“dictate, prescribe”), from dīcō (“say, speak”). By surface analysis, dictate +‎ -or, literally “one who dictates”.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪkˈteɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪkˌteɪtəɹ/, [-ɾəɹ]

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: dic‧ta‧tor

dictator (plural dictators)

1. A totalitarian leader of a country, nation, or government.
   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “A Time of Testing: Crises in the Caribbean”, in The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 188:

     The Dominicans had lived for thirty years under the iron-fisted rule of dictator Leonidas Trujillo. During those years, which ended with Trujillo's assassination in 1961, those who opposed Trujillo had three choices: to go into exile, to go underground, or to remain quiet. Most Dominicans had chosen the third course.

   • 2019, (Existential Comics), 29 January, 9:27 AM Tweet:

     Dictator, noun : someone who doesn't let American CEOs dictate how their country is run

   • 2023 June 21, Trevor Hunnicutt, Ryan Woo, quoting Joe Biden, “China hits back after Biden calls Xi a 'dictator'”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 22 June 2023:

     "The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn't know it was there," Biden said.
     "That's a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn't know what happened. That wasn't supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course," Biden said.

2. (history) A magistrate without colleague in republican Ancient Rome, who held full executive authority for a term granted by the senate (legislature), typically to conduct a war.
3. A tyrannical boss or authority figure.
4. Misspelling of dictater.

• dictatress
• petro-dictator
• tin-pot dictator, tinpot dictator

Borrowed from Latin dictātor.

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɪkˈtaː.tɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dic‧ta‧tor
• Rhymes: -aːtɔr

dictator m (plural dictatoren or dictators, diminutive dictatortje n)

1. dictator (tyrant, despot)

   Synonyms: despoot, dwingeland, tiran

2. (historical) dictator (Roman magistrate with expanded powers)

From dictō (“I dictate”) +‎ -tor.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /dikˈtaː.tor/, [d̪ɪkˈt̪äːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /dikˈta.tor/, [d̪ikˈt̪äːt̪or]

dictātor m (genitive dictātōris); third declension

1. an elected chief magistrate
2. one who dictates.

Third-declension noun.

• “dictator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dictator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dictator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• dictator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to name a person dictator: dictatorem dicere (creare)
    
  • a dictator appoints a magister equitum: dictator dicit (legit) magistrum equitum
    
• “dictator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “dictator”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Borrowed from French dictateur, Latin dictātor. Equivalent to dicta +‎ -tor.

dictator m (plural dictatori)

1. dictator