What does Orwellian mean?
Definitions for Orwellian
ɔrˈwɛl i ənor·wellian
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Orwellian.
Princeton's WordNet
Orwellianadjective
of or relating to the works of George Orwell (especially his picture of a future totalitarian state)
Wiktionary
Orwellianadjective
Pertaining to or resembling the works of George Orwell, especially in reference to the dystopia in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Orwellianadjective
Frightening and overcontrolled by a government that interferes in nearly every aspect of personal life
Wikipedia
Orwellian
Orwellian is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by propaganda, surveillance, disinformation, denial of truth (doublethink), and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson"—a person whose past atrocity is idealised from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments. Often, this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels, particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four but political doublespeak is criticized throughout his work, such as in Politics and the English Language.The New York Times has said the term is "the most widely used adjective derived from the name of a modern writer".
ChatGPT
orwellian
Orwellian refers to a situation, idea, or societal condition that is identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes any attitude or policy that is evocative of a totalitarian or authoritarian system, including extensive surveillance, misinformation, manipulation, and deception by the governing body. The term originates from the works of the English author George Orwell, particularly his dystopian novels such as "1984" which illustrate such societies.
Wikidata
Orwellian
"Orwellian" is an adjective describing the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It connotes an attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson" — a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments. Often, this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels, particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nineteen Eighty-Four uses themes from life in the Soviet Union and wartime life in Great Britain as sources for many of its motifs. Orwell's ideas about personal freedom and state authority developed when he was a British colonial administrator in Burma. He was fascinated by the effect of colonialism on the individual, requiring acceptance of the idea that the colonialist exists only for the good of the colonised. There has also been a great deal of discourse on the possibility that Orwell galvanized his ideas of oppression during his experience, and his subsequent writings in the English press, in Spain. Orwell was a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification militia and suffered suppression and escaped arrest by the Comintern faction working within the Republican Government. Following his escape he made a strong case for defending the Spanish revolution from the Communists there, and the misinformation in the press at home. During this period he formed strong ideas about the reportage of events, and their context in his own ideas of imperialism and democracy.
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of Orwellian in Chaldean Numerology is: 6
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of Orwellian in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1
Examples of Orwellian in a Sentence
I think it is accurate to describe it as Orwellian, but one has to understand the context, it is home quarantine Australian style, and the alternative is hotel quarantine Australian style, under police guard, which people hate.
What we're really witnessing is Orwellian –it is a Big Tech, corporate media collusion.
The argument that I hear from the administration is that we don't want to provoke Vladimir Putin. That is just Orwellian... history will judge this administration incredibly harshly, the only thing that will dissuade Vladimir Putin from what he is doing is when coffins come back to the families in Russia.
In what can only be described as a chilling, Orwellian effort now has emerged to silence, cancel, erase any opposition voices, now, couple this with the most radical, big government Socialist agenda that’s ever been proposed in American history, and a commitment to implementing it, and, of course, starting with this radical environmental Green New Deal and regulations canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and so much more – everything we warned you so much about.
Facial recognition is a uniquely dangerous form of surveillance, this is not just some Orwellian technology of the future — it's being used by law enforcement agencies across the country right now, and doing harm to communities right now.
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Translations for Orwellian
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"Orwellian." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Orwellian>.
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