How to Use dictatorial in a Sentence

dictatorial

adjective
  • He was given dictatorial powers.
  • But even the most dictatorial sometimes have two sets of rules.
    — Beth Teitell, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Oct. 2022
  • The mausoleum is seen by many as a relic of a dictatorial past.
    — Washington Post, 11 May 2017
  • The era in which college coaches could throw their weight around in dictatorial fashion are over.
    — Xander Peters, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Feb. 2022
  • The key to dictatorial Russia is to neither love nor hate it.
    — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 12 Sep. 2017
  • The film is at its best building tension and showing us just how anxious life is under dictatorial rule.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2026
  • Eager to set a dictatorial tone, Mai won't tell the brides who's marrying whom.
    — Kevin Canfield, Star Tribune, 9 July 2021
  • But the Venezuelan regime did the necessary, from a dictatorial point of view.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 17 Dec. 2020
  • This dictatorial my-way-or-the-highway approach doesn’t work anymore.
    — Bryce Hoffman, Forbes, 15 June 2022
  • Surely this dictatorial agency that oppresses free will for the sake of order is evil, right?
    — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 15 July 2021
  • Japan is organized — not in a dictatorial kind of way, but in a functional, smooth manner.
    — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Aug. 2021
  • So, succession fell to Bashar, an eye doctor, who did not seem to have the dictatorial mettle.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 30 Apr. 2021
  • Trump’s dream is to one day enjoy the kind of dictatorial power exercised by Putin.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 18 Feb. 2024
  • Making a dictatorial decision could come back to haunt you as Mars and Uranus clash.
    — Usa Today, USA Today, 15 June 2025
  • Some of them do this while praising the plainly dictatorial fury with which China confronted this virus.
    — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 26 Mar. 2020
  • The adventure tale follows a rebellious teenage squirrel who faces off against a dictatorial owl who has banned all music from his town.
    — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Oct. 2023
  • In the West, the culture tends to be dictatorial with no compromises.
    — Greg Story, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2021
  • Does Google really want to become a tool of the dictatorial communist regime?
    — Casey Newton, The Verge, 29 Aug. 2018
  • Now that the most ambitious and dictatorial leader since Mao is in place, who will be Beijing's next target?
    — Kent Wong, Star Tribune, 1 Apr. 2021
  • Trump isn’t loved but rather adulated, the way cult members mindlessly follow a stern dictatorial father-figure who tells them what to do and think.
    — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Mar. 2020
  • There was a vaguely communist atmosphere on set—not dictatorial, not Putin-like.
    — Ben Croll, Variety, 30 Nov. 2025
  • Rubio has been carrying out dictatorial measures at home.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 29 Jan. 2026
  • The couple have been Biles’ safe zone, nurturing her after the more dictatorial approach of the Karolyis.
    — Dana O'Neil, The Athletic, 6 Aug. 2024
  • Some of those critics say the school is training the future elite of a dictatorial regime that abuses human rights and threatens its neighbors with nuclear weapons.
    — The New York Times, NOLA.com, 30 May 2017
  • This should not be dictatorial in tone but should instead provide a sense that the company has new solutions to help plant and warehouse managers hit their bonus metrics.
    — Carsten Funke, Forbes, 25 July 2022
  • On one side, commenters found the black-and-white images fascistic and dictatorial, and rolled their eyes at the appointment of yet another white man to head a legacy house.
    — Alexandra Marshall, WSJ, 4 Oct. 2020
  • Jordan spent weeks in Bloomington at the behest of the team’s dictatorial coach, Bob Knight.
    — Jon Wertheim, Vulture, 25 June 2021
  • Germany was doomed by its dictatorial system, which allowed Adolf Hitler to launch a global war that was beyond the country’s means.
    — Phillips P. O’Brien, Foreign Affairs, 29 June 2023
  • Viktor Tikhonov, the dictatorial former Soviet coach, barred him from the senior team for nearly three years.
    — Mike Vorkunov, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2016
  • The upper ranks of the dictatorial regime’s leadership have been decimated.
    — Kazem Kazerounian, Hartford Courant, 1 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dictatorial.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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