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tyrant

ty·rant

US/ˈtaɪɹənt/ fairly common

noun

1.
2.

in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it

3.

any person who exercises power in a cruel way

  • “his father was a tyrant”

Origin

From Middle English tyraunt, tiraunt, tyrant, tyrante, from Old French tyrant, from the addition of a terminal -t to tiran (cp. French tyran) via a back-formation related to the development of French present participles out of the Latin -ans form, from Latin tyrannus (“despot”), from Ancient Greek τύραννος (túrannos, “usurper, monarch, despot”), of uncertain origin.

Phrases

  • black-backed water tyrant
  • ground tyrant
  • pygmy tyrant
  • tyrant flycatcher
  • Tyrant period

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.