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Definition 2024


gerontocrat

gerontocrat

English

Noun

gerontocrat (plural gerontocrats)

  1. A member of a gerontocracy; an aged leader, especially one clinging on to power or ruling only by virtue of age.
    • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 98:
      In Poland, a so-called anti-Zionist urge proved that the Stalinist gerontocrats would stoop even to Hitlerite tactics to repress dissent and prolong their sterile and boring hold on power.
    • 2013 May 11, “What a waste”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 12:
      India is run by gerontocrats and epigones: grey hairs and groomed heirs.

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