TYRANT

Tyrant

A tyrant, in its modern English usage, is a ruler of a cruel and oppressive character who is an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution, and/or one who has usurped legitimate sovereignty. The original Greek term, however, merely meant an authoritarian sovereign without reference to character, bearing no pejorative connotation during the Archaic and early Classical periods, though it was clearly a bad word to Plato, and on account of the decisive influence of political philosophy its negative connotations only increased down into the Hellenistic period, becoming synonymous with "Authenteo" - another term which carried authoritarian connotations ...

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Tyrant
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

tyrant

Noun

  1. An absolute ruler who governs without restriction.
  2. A harsh and cruel ruler.
  3. An oppressive, cruel and harsh person.
  4. Any of numerous species of aggressive American clamatorial birds of the family Tyrannidae; a tyrant bird.

Verb

  1. To act like a tyrant; to be tyrannical.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: tyrant
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

Need help with a clue?
Try your search in the crossword dictionary!