theocracy

theo- +‎ -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the kingdom of Israel. Attested in English from the 1630s, first by John Donne in a 1631 sermon: The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God.

• IPA^(key): /θiːˈɒkɹəsɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: theocrasy

theocracy (countable and uncountable, plural theocracies)

1. Government under the control of a state religion.

   Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by the Dalai Lama prior to Chinese annexation.

   The Vatican City State is a sovereign city-state and a Christian theocracy ruled by the Pope.

2. Rule by a god.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:theocracy.

• sharia law

• theocrat
• theocratic