Definition of "dictatorship" []

• The office or tenure of a dictator. (noun)
• A state or government under dictatorial rule. (noun)
• Absolute or despotic control or power. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And so the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes the _dictatorship of a single person_, a super-boss and industrial autocrat: We must learn to combine the stormy, energetic breaking of all restraint on the part of the toiling masses _with iron discipline during work, with absolute submission to the will of one person, the Soviet director, during work_. ["
• "We will have a judiciary that will think a dictatorship is appropriate."
• "And I don't use that term lightly; the very definition of a dictatorship is a system that puts a ruler above the law."