This week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

This week’s words
theomachy
kleptocrat

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(KLEP-tuh-krat)

MEANING:

noun: A politician or an official who uses their position to enrich themselves.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek klepto- (theft) + -crat (ruler). Earliest documented use: 1892. See also kleptocracy.

USAGE:

“It was then that Jacob Zuma began his nine-year reign as president, during which time the thuggish kleptocrat and his cronies ransacked state-owned enterprises, plundered local and provincial governments, and ravaged the law-enforcement institutions set up to curb such looting.”
Saving the Nation; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 27, 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: