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dystopia

dystopia

7 8.2
A society where life is very bad because people suffer and have little freedom
  • noun
  • /dɪsˈtoʊpiə/
  • Literature
translation icon : distopía
  • Yet Huxley viewed this pill-popping of society as a dystopia, one that replaced self-knowledge and self-awareness with mindless bliss.

This is no awkward dystopia where all are forced to conform.

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Examples

  • To paraphrase an old Onion article: do you want the government dystopia or the corporate dystopia for the next four years?

    Blog text (21)
  • I like to see how societies rebuild after something causes the world to become a dystopia.

    Blog text (29)
  • But few would go so far as to say that we live in a global dystopia.

    Blog text (17)
  • And, and it feels like we're still living in dystopia and it feels inevitable as well, I think to me.

  • In the Star Wars universe, which is a dystopia, very few things line up perfectly.

  • At the time it came out, it seemed that the dystopia it portrayed was merely one of science fiction.

    Academic text (2008)
  • And so China has done a great job of perfecting this digital dystopia that you've described.

  • Writing his dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall describes a dystopia that sounds all too familiar:

    Academic text (2018)
  • In the novel, the author depicts a dystopia where the government controls every aspect of life.

  • The film presents a chilling vision of a future dystopia plagued by inequality and oppression.

Synonyms

dystopian society
vsdystopia
  • Literature
1 7.4

A society where people are controlled and have few personal freedoms

is the general noun for such imagined communities

Antonyms

192 4.0

A place or state of perfect happiness and peace

18 7.7

An imagined place where everything is perfect in society and politics

How Dystopian

dystopia
  • Literature
7 8.2
utopia
18 7.7

Surface Forms

dystopia singular
dystopias plural

Morphology

dystopia = utopia (transparent) = dys + topia

Formed by a productive negative prefix 'dys-' + the combining element '-topia' (as in 'utopia'), so the meaning 'bad/place' → 'bad place' is directly inferable.

Etymology

Dystopia comes from Greek parts dys- meaning 'bad' and -topia from topos meaning 'place', and it is the opposite of utopia ('good place'). So a dystopia is an imagined 'bad place' or society where life is very bad.