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Which ancient city-state is most closely associated with an oligarchy?

oligarchy

[ol-i-gahr-kee] / ˈɒl ɪˌgɑr ki /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Typically wearing a traditional Caribbean shirt, Cepeda forgoes a tie, which he considers a symbol of oligarchy.

From Barron's ● May 25, 2026

Authoritarianism, oligarchy, and racism were symptoms rather than causes.

From Slate ● May 1, 2026

By that time, Russian oligarchy was well and truly dead, too.

From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2025

Sparta was an agrarian oligarchy whose muscle was its hoplite horde.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

It’s not hard for me to believe that the Bureau would do bad things, because every government I’ve ever known has done bad things, even the Abnegation oligarchy, of which my father was the head.

From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

But these broad coalitions were fragile, while the economic and institutional power of entrenched oligarchies remained largely intact.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026

Global supply chains were supposed to lower costs, boost profits and enable democratic values to seep into the terrain of oligarchies, dictatorships and autocracies.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 11, 2022

To the present day at least 10 of the 15 former Soviet republics can be accurately described as oligarchies.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 30, 2019

Dictatorships are sometimes identified as either autocracies or oligarchies.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2016

All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grew soft.

From "1984" by George Orwell




Vocabulary lists containing oligarchy


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