n.
Pronunciation: di- ' mä-kr ə -s ē
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek d ē mokratia, from d ē mos + -kratia -cracy
Date: 1576
1 a : government by the people especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S. <from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy ― C. M. Roberts>
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges