DEMOCRACY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Democracy

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/dɪmˈɑkrəsi/ Listen

noun

Democracy n. (pl. democracies)

Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people.

Government by popular representation; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.

Collectively, the people, regarded as the source of government.

The principles and policy of the Democratic party, so called. (U.S.)

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Etymology of 'Democracy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Democracy" Quotes from Famous Books

... was levity. We expected mere excitement, violent fluctuations of opinion, a confused irresponsibility, and possibly mischievous and disastrous interventions. It is no good hiding an open secret. We judged America by the peace headline. It is time we began to offer our apologies to America and democracy. The result of reading endless various American newspapers and articles, of following the actions of the American Government, of talking to representative Americans, is to realize the existence of a very clear, strong national mentality, ...

— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... pages present the substance of a course of twelve lectures on "Democracy and Social Ethics" which have been delivered at various colleges and university ...

— Democracy and Social Ethics • Jane Addams

... memorized in the primary schools. The child begins his education with Ariel and the fairies, and until his schooling is completed is kept in almost daily intercourse with the poetry and persons of the dramas. Homer was not better known in Athens. In a democracy still young and widely separated from older nations and cultures, Shakespeare has become one of the links that bind the American public not only to the common inheritances of the English-speaking races, but to the traditional culture ...

— The Facts About Shakespeare • William Allan Nielson

... fine and thoughtful leaders of society could easily establish the new order of things. In an aristocratic country, where labor is the badge of caste, it would be difficult to make it honorable. In a democracy like our own, it is the most contemptible snobbishness which frowns on the honest ...

— Modern Women and What is Said of Them - A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) • Anonymous

... smooth things. All sorts of people (except the working sort) frequent his receptions—the fashionable classes, who are far more loyal to England for the most part than the English themselves, their fringe, and then the wealthier of the tradespeople. It is proven every day that a democracy is the happiest hunting ground for a man with a title. The very rarity of the distinction makes it more precious to those who value it, and the titled governors of one of our great colonies occupies a position which is vastly higher in public ...

— Recollections • David Christie Murray

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