What does anarchy mean?

Definitions for anarchy
ˈæn ər kian·ar·chy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word anarchy.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. anarchy, lawlessnessnoun

    a state of lawlessness and disorder (usually resulting from a failure of government)

Wiktionary

  1. anarchynoun

    The state of a society being without authoritarians or a governing body.

  2. anarchynoun

    Anarchism; the political theory that a community is best organized by the voluntary cooperation of individuals, rather than by a government, which is regarded as being coercive by nature.

  3. anarchynoun

    A chaotic and confusing absence of any form of political authority or government.

  4. anarchynoun

    confusion in general; disorder

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Anarchynoun

    Want of government; a state in which every man is unaccountable; a state without magistracy.

    Etymology: ἀναϱχία.

    Where eldest night
    And chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
    Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
    Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. Paradise Lost.

    Arbitrary power is but the first natural step from anarchy, or the savage life; the adjusting power and freedom being an effect and consequence of maturer thinking. Jonathan Swift.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Anarchynoun

    absence of government; the state of society where there is no law or supreme power; a state of lawlessness; political confusion

  2. Anarchynoun

    hence, confusion or disorder, in general

  3. Etymology: [Gr. : cf. F. anarchie. See Anarch.]

Freebase

  1. Anarchy

    Anarchy has more than one definition. Some use the term "anarchy" to refer to a society without a publicly enforced government or violently enforced political authority. When used in this sense, anarchy may or may not be intended to imply political disorder or lawlessness within a society. Others, including most individuals who self-identify as anarchists, use the term to imply a system of governance, mostly theoretical at a nation state level. There are also other forms of anarchy that attempt to avoid the use of coercion, violence, force and authority, while still producing a productive and desirable society. Anarchy is also a technical issue of economic science.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Anarchy

    an′ark-i, n. the want of government in a state: political confusion: conflict of opinion.—adjs. Anarch′al (rare); Anarch′ic, Anarch′ical.—v.t. Anarch′ise.—ns. An′archism, anarchy: the negation of government—the name adopted by a phase of revolutionary socialism associated with the names of Proudhon and Bakunin. Their ideal of society was of one without government of any kind, when every man should be a law unto himself; An′archist, An′arch, one who promotes anarchy. [Gr. a, an, neg., archē, government.]

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. anarchy

    Want of government; the state of society where there is no law or supreme power, or where the laws are not efficient, and individuals do what they please with impunity; political confusion; hence, confusion in general.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of anarchy in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of anarchy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of anarchy in a Sentence

  1. Eliezer Avila:

    Destabilization, disorder, anarchy, that's never been on the agenda in the minds of Cubans, and whoever has this agenda isn't going to be able to find space.

  2. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:

    Time matters, minutes count, and this is literally a matter of life and death, at the same time, there is not going to be chaos, there is not going to be anarchy. Life is going to go on. Different. But life is going to go on.

  3. Daniel Webster:

    Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.

  4. W. B. Yeats, the second coming:

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcone cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

  5. Ken Wilamowski:

    The last week sure shows you the direction the liberals are trying to drive this country, pacifism is going to lose to anarchy every time.

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Translations for anarchy

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"anarchy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 28 Mar. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/anarchy>.

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