autarchy

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːtəki/, /-tɑː-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ôʹtär'kē, IPA^(key): /ˈɔˌtɑɹki/
• Homophone: autarky
• Hyphenation: aut‧archy

From Medieval Latin autarchia, from Koine Greek αὐταρχία (autarkhía, “absolute power, sovereignty, autocracy”), from αὔταρχος (aútarkhos, “autocratic”), from αὐτ- (aut-, “self”) +‎ ἄρχω (árkhō, “to rule, govern”).

autarchy (countable and uncountable, plural autarchies)

1. A condition of absolute power.
2. (government) Autocracy (absolute rule by a single person).
   • 1964, Jan Morris, “Envoi: State of Being”, in Spain, Faber and Faber, published 2008, →ISBN:

     Like Philip's, Franco's autarchy was shrouded in religiosity—not Christianity alone, but also a sort of dim Wagnerian vision of hero-gods and Valhallas, a gloomy level of devotion on which paganism, Catholicism and the apotheosis of the State could conveniently be mingled.

3. (politics) Sovereignty or self-government (national political independence).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:government

Not to be confused with autarky (“personal condition or state of self-reliance; (policy of) national economic self-sufficiency; self-sufficient country or region”), even though the latter word is sometimes also spelled autarchy (see etymology 2 below).

• autarky
• autocracy

See autarky.

autarchy (countable and uncountable, plural autarchies)

1. Alternative spelling of autarky (“personal condition or state of self-reliance; (policy of) national economic self-sufficiency; self-sufficient country or region”).

• autarchism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “autarchy, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “autarchy¹”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 386, column 1.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “autarchy²†”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 386, column 1.
• “autarchy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.