ANARCHY Definition & Meaning

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anarchy

[ an-er-kee ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a state of society without government or law.
political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control:
The death of the king was followed by a year of anarchy.
Synonyms: , ,
anarchism ( def 1 ).
lack of obedience to an authority; insubordination:
the anarchy of his rebellious teenage years.
confusion and disorder:
Intellectual and moral anarchy followed his loss of faith.
It was impossible to find the book I was looking for in the anarchy of his bookshelves.
Synonyms: , , , , ,

anarchy

/ ˈænəkɪ; ænˈɑːkɪk /

noun

general lawlessness and disorder, esp when thought to result from an absence or failure of government
the absence or lack of government
the absence of any guiding or uniting principle; disorder; chaos
the theory or practice of political anarchism

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Derived Forms

anarchic, adjective
��ˈ��󾱳��, adverb

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Other 51�Թ� Forms

��p��·��a��·�� noun
��·��a��·�� adjective

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of anarchy¹

First recorded in 1530–40; from Middle French anarchie or Medieval Latin anarchia or directly from Greek ��Բ��í�� “lawlessness,” literally, “lack of a leader,” equivalent to á�Բ��(�ǲ�) “leaderless” ( an- “without, lacking” + ��(ó��) “leader” + -os adjective suffix) + -ia noun suffix; an- ¹, -y ³

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of anarchy¹

C16: from Medieval Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhia, from anarkhos without a ruler, from an- + arkh- leader, from arkhein to rule

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Only a strong leader can protect the people from anarchy.

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In the words of the Yeats poem, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… Surely some revelation is at hand."

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“With this policy, the U.S. continues its retreat from being the main proponent of a rules-based international economic order to that of chaos and anarchy,” Meissner told Salon.

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The rest of the nation has eagerly waited for Los Angeles to collapse into tribal warfare and anarchy the moment a mega-catastrophe happened.

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If we are to prevent more anarchy, the blood-dimmed tide that Yeats predicted in his poem “The Second Coming,” the center that unites us must be regained, reimagined, rebuilt.

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