theocracy

theo- +‎ -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the kingdom of Israel. Attested in English from the 1630s, first by John Donne in a 1631 sermon: The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God.

• IPA^(key): /θiːˈɒkɹəsɪ/

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Homophone: theocrasy

theocracy (countable and uncountable, plural theocracies)

1. Government under the control of a state-sponsored religion.

   Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by the Dalai Lama.

2. Rule by a god.
   • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:theocracy.

• sharia law