tyrant

Meanings

Noun

• A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
• Any monarch or governor.
• A despot; a ruler who governs unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
• Any person who abuses the power of position or office to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
• A villain; a person or thing who uses strength or violence to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
• The tyrant bird, members of the family Tyrannidae, which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests.

Adjective

• Tyrannical, tyrannous; like, characteristic of, or in the manner of a tyrant.

Verb

• To act like a tyrant; to be tyrannical.
• To tyrannize.

Related

Similar words

• archon, basileus, aisymnetes
• autocrat, dictator, despot, martinet
• tyrant bird, tyrant flycatcher, tyrant shrike, king bird, bee martin

Origin

• From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus ("despot"), from Ancient Greek τύραννος ("usurper, monarch, despot"), of uncertain origin.