de|moc|ra|cy

de|moc|ra|cy «dih MOK ruh see», noun, plural -cies.

1. a government that is run by the people who live under it. In a democracy, the people rule either directly through meetings that all may attend, such as the town meetings in New England, or indirectly through the election of certain representatives to attend to the business of running government: »

Democracy means the community's governing through its representatives for its own benefit (Thomas P. Thompson). Puritanism…laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy (James Russell Lowell).

2. a country, state, or community in which the government is a democracy: »

The United States is a democracy.

3. the common people, distinguished from the privileged class, or their political power.

4. the treating of other people as one's equals: »

The teacher's democracy made her popular among her pupils.

╂[< Middle French démocratie, learned borrowing from Medieval Latin democratia < Greek dēmokratíā < dêmos people + krátos rule, power]

De|moc|ra|cy «dih MOK ruh see», noun.

1. the Democratic Party in the United States.

2. its principles and policies.

╂[< democracy]