absolutism

noun

ab·so·lut·ism ˈab-sə-ˌlü-ˌti-zəm

: a political theory that absolute power should be vested in one or more rulers

: government by an absolute ruler or authority : despotism

: advocacy of a rule by absolute standards or principles

: an absolute standard or principle

absolutist

ˈab-sə-ˌlü-tist

noun or adjective

absolutistic

ˌab-sə-(ˌ)lü-ˈti-stik

adjective

Example Sentences

concerning absolutism Lord Acton famously observed that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”

Recent Examples on the Web But Musk’s ostensible free speech absolutism, combined with his ostensible love of comedy — this is a guy who reportedly tried desperately to get Nathan Fielder to laugh at his jokes — adds a truly delicious dimension to it.

Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 7 Nov. 2022 Musk also took heat from some Twitter users for announcing that accounts impersonating another person would be permanently suspended unless they are clearly labeled as parody—a rule that cuts against Musk’s professed free-speech absolutism.

Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 7 Nov. 2022 Rejecting the comforts of moral absolutism and easy outrage, Field holds Lydia Tár the magnificent artist and Lydia Tár the monstrous human being side by side — and insists that the two might, in fact, be inextricably, even symbiotically connected.

Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2022 Among other things, the conflation of Christianity and Republican politics fostered by political elites and powerfully felt at the grassroots level is encouraging absolutism on the right.

Jonathan Stevenson, The New York Review of Books, 7 Sep. 2022 This absolutism perplexed the polytheistic Japanese.

Hiroko Yoda, The New Yorker, 26 July 2022 Like vaccine skepticism or climate change resistance, Second Amendment absolutism has become a kind of religion for many conservatives, including those on the Supreme Court, and its noxious power is now wafting across our borders.

Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2022 Those victories have come amid the Republican Party’s embrace of Second Amendment absolutism and guns as central to its identity, a fervor that gun control proponents have not been able to match, said Mr. Miller of the Duke firearms law center.

New York Times, 18 June 2022 That might sound like good news to gun reform advocates, who have for decades seen the NRA as the primary driver of gun absolutism in the United States.

Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 30 May 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'absolutism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.