Word
dystopian
Phoneticsdystopi·an
UK/dɪstˈəʊpiən/
Definition
adj. describing a future world where everything is very bad, scary, or unfair. You often see this in books or movies where a powerful government controls everyone.
adj. relating to or denoting an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic. Often used to describe speculative fiction that explores social and political structures.
Examples
“The movie shows a dystopian future where robots rule the world.”
“Many young adult novels feature a dystopian setting where teenagers must fight against a corrupt and controlling government.”
“Critics argue that the author's latest work presents a dystopian vision of urban decay, where surveillance technology has completely eroded the boundary between public and private life.”
Examples
simple
“The movie shows a dystopian future where robots rule the world.”
contextual
“Many young adult novels feature a dystopian setting where teenagers must fight against a corrupt and controlling government.”
complex
“Critics argue that the author's latest work presents a dystopian vision of urban decay, where surveillance technology has completely eroded the boundary between public and private life.”
Usage
Often used to modify nouns like 'future', 'society', 'novel', or 'vision'.
Real-World Examples
“An attack by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone with an Nvidia chip presages a dystopian future of weaponry untethered to humans.” “It was a little bit too tidy, of course, and had the slightly dystopian atmosphere of a neutral colour palette, but the main problem was that places look weird without people in them.” Etymology
From dystopia + -an.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/dystopian