anarchy

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: an=ar=chy

CIDE DICTIONARY

anarchy, n. [Gr. : cf. F. anarchie. See Anarch.].

•  Absence of government; the state of society where there is no law or supreme power; a state of lawlessness; political confusion.  [1913 Webster]

  "Spread anarchy and terror all around."  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, confusion or disorder, in general.  [1913 Webster]

  "There being then . . . an anarchy, as I may term it, in authors and their re"  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

anarchy, n.
1 disorder, esp. political or social.
2 lack of government in a society.

Derivative

anarchic adj. anarchical adj. anarchically adv.

Etymology

med.L f. Gk anarkhia (as AN-(1), arkhe rule)

THESAURUS

anarchy

aloofness, amorphia, amorphism, amorphousness, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anomie, antinomianism, blurriness, chaos, confusion, criminal syndicalism, criminalism, criminality, diffusion, discontinuity, discreteness, disjunction, dislocation, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, dispersal, dispersion, disruption, dissolution, distemper, entropy, fabulous formless darkness, formlessness, foul-up, fuzziness, hassle, haziness, illegality, illicit business, illicitness, impermissibility, incoherence, inconsistency, indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indeterminateness, lawlessness, legal flaw, license, lynch law, messiness, misrule, mistiness, mix-up, mob law, mob rule, mobocracy, morass, muddle, nihilism, nonadhesion, noncohesion, obscurity, ochlocracy, orderlessness, outlawry, primal chaos, rebellion, reign of terror, revolution, riot, scattering, screw-up, separateness, shapelessness, snafu, syndicalism, technical flaw, tohubohu, turmoil, unadherence, unadhesiveness, unclearness, unlawfulness, unruliness, untenacity, vagueness, wrongfulness

ROGET THESAURUS

anarchy

Disorder

N disorder, derangement, irregularity, anomaly, anarchy, anarchism, want of method, untidiness, disunion, discord, confusion, confusedness, mishmash, mix, disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber, cahotage, farrago, mess, mash, muddle, muss, hash, hodgepodge, hotch-potch, hotch-pot, imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley, mere mixture, fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles, complexity, turmoil, ferment, to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble, whirlwind, bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors, Bedlam, all hell broke loose, bull in a china shop, all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay, pretty kettle of fish, pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business, disorderly person, disorderly persons offence, misdemeanor, slattern, slut (libertine), disorderly, orderless, out of order, out of place, out of gear, irregular, desultory, anomalous, acephalous, deranged, aimless, disorganized, straggling, unmethodical, immethodical, unsymmetric, unsystematic, untidy, slovenly, dislocated, out of sorts, promiscuous, indiscriminate, chaotic, anarchical, unarranged &c (arrange), confused, deranged, topsy-turvy, shapeless, disjointed, out of joint, troublous, riotous, complex, irregularly, by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts, pellmell, higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, harum-scarum, in a ferment, at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes, upside down, the cart before the horse, hysteron proteron, chaos is come again, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Laxity

N laxity, laxness, looseness, slackness, toleration, freedom, anarchy, interregnum, relaxation, loosening, remission, dead letter, brutum fulmen, misrule, license, licentiousness, insubordination, lynch law, nihilism, reign of violence, dethronement, deposition, usurpation, abdication, lax, loose, slack, remiss, weak, relaxed, licensed, reinless, unbridled, anarchical, unauthorized, adespotic.