democracy

pronunciation

How to pronounce democracy in British English: UK [dɪˈmɒkrəsi] word uk audio image

How to pronounce democracy in American English: US [dɪˈmɑːkrəsi] word us audio image

Noun:

the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives
a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them
the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group

Word Origin

democracy: democracy: [16] Democracy means literally ‘government by the populace at large’. It comes via Old French democratie and medieval Latin dēmocratia from Greek dēmokratíā, a compound formed from demos ‘people’ and -kratíā ‘rule’, a derivative of the noun krátos ‘power, authority’, which has contributed a number of terms for types of government to English.The original meaning of Greek demos was ‘district, land’, but eventually it came to denote the people living in such a district, particularly the ordinary people considered as a social class participating in government – hence democracy. The derivative democrat [18] was coined in French at the time of the Revolution.=> epidemic

democracy (n.): 1570s, from Middle French démocratie (14c.), from Medieval Latin democratia (13c.), from Greek demokratia "popular government," from demos "common people," originally "district" (see demotic), + kratos "rule, strength" (see -cracy). Democracy implies that the man must take the responsibility for choosing his rulers and representatives, and for the maintenance of his own 'rights' against the possible and probable encroachments of the government which he has sanctioned to act for him in public matters. [Ezra Pound, "ABC of Economics," 1933]