Phrase guide

turnkey tyranny

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

An institutional, legal, and technical infrastructure — particularly mass surveillance, data collection, and centralized state power — that is built up to a point where it is likely to be abused for authoritarian ends, or could be activated by any government so inclined with little additional effort.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: government, politics

Examples

  • Civil-liberties advocates warned that the expanding surveillance apparatus had created turnkey tyranny.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From turnkey + tyranny.