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🌍 Many power centers 🧲 With many poles
multipolar

multipolar

1 7.0
Where power is held by several countries or centers
  • adjective
  • /ˌmʌltiˈpoʊlər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : multipolar
  • The rise of multiple global powers signifies that we are living in a multipolar era.
  • multipolar world
  • multipolar system
  • multipolar international order

I don't understand how foreign policy is going to react to the multipolar world we're in now.

Examples

  • As a result, Northeast Asia would be a dramatically unbalanced multipolar system, and thus a much more dangerous place than it is now.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The birth of the G-20 reflected a multipolar world economy in which emerging markets had new weight.

    Academic text (2018)

  • In a multipolar nuclear Middle East, however, such logic might not hold.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The regional system would remain multipolar and balanced, but security competition would be somewhat more intense than it is today.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In its place is a much less predictable, more multipolar world -- one with many new actors now playing on the world stage.

    Academic text (1999)

  • I don't understand how foreign policy is going to react to the multipolar world we're in now.

    Harvard University

  • In effect, they would all become great powers, making Europe multipolar and raising the ever-present possibility that they might fight among themselves.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In civilizational terms, we are not going from a unipolar world to a multipolar world.

    Blog text (14)

  • Europe, since 1989, has not returned to classical, multipolar balance-of-power behavior between a number of centers.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Ironically, a multipolar world less dominated by American hegemony might well be better for the United States.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

multinuclear
vsmultipolar
7.7

Having several separate centers of control or activity

is the same idea expressed more generally about centers of power
multinucleated
vsmultipolar
7.9

Having more than one main center of activity, like several business districts

focuses on centers of power or influence rather than physical cores
polycephalous
vsmultipolar
  • Specialized
9.9

An organization that has more than one leader sharing power

covers multiple centers of power beyond only named leaders
multicentric
vsmultipolar
  • Specialized
7.2

Happening in several different places

applies to centres of influence rather than just geographic locations
polyarchic
vsmultipolar
  • Formal
9.9

Many people share power in government

emphasizes distinct power centers rather than many individual rulers

Antonyms

unipolar
  • Specialized
2 7.9

Having only one main center, for example one country or one electrical pole

How Many Centers

multipolar
  • Specialized
1 7.0
bipolar
5 7.0
unipolar
  • Specialized
2 7.9

Surface Forms

multipolar positive

Morphology

multipolar = polar (semi-transparent) = multi + pole + ar

The form is compositional, but the political sense extends 'pole' metaphorically to centers of power, so the meaning is not fully literal.

Etymology

Multipolar combines multi- 'many' and polar from pole 'a center or point'. So, multipolar means 'many poles', and that is why people use it to describe a world or system with several centers of power or influence.