dystopian

English

Etymology

From dystopia +‎ -an.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtoʊ.pi.ən/

Adjective

dystopian (comparative more dystopian, superlative most dystopian)

1. Of or pertaining to a dystopia.
   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     If Suzanne Collins’ novel The Hunger Games turns up on middle-school curricula 50 years from now—and as accessible dystopian science fiction with allusions to early-21st-century strife, that isn’t out of the question—the lazy students of the future can be assured that they can watch the movie version and still get better than a passing grade.

   • 2019 June 30, Philip Oltermann, quoting Tom Hillenbrand, “German sci-fi fans lap up dystopian tales of Brexit Britain”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     In my book Britain has actually worked out how it wants to leave and the EU is preparing a new constitution as a result. The real Brexit is actually much more dystopian.

   • 2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, in New York Times‎^[3]:

     He kept thinking about an episode of “Black Mirror,” the British dystopian anthology series, in which the characters rate everyone they interact with on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. (It doesn’t end well.)

   • 2023 June 7, Samira Asma-Sadeque, “‘It’s too much’: New Yorkers don masks or stay inside amid smog crisis”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     The whole city is immersed in a dystopian-looking smog: urban streets in sepia, emptier than usual, bathed in an eerie quiet.

2. Dire; characterized by human suffering or misery.

Derived terms

• antidystopian
• dystopianism

Translations

pertaining to a dystopia

• Esperanto: malutopia
• Finnish: dystopinen
• French: dystopique (fr), contre-utopique, dystopiste (fr), contre-utopiste
• Greek: δυστοπικός (el) (dystopikós)
• Italian: distopico (it)
• Persian: ویران‌شهری (virân-šahri)
• Portuguese: distópico (pt) m
• Romanian: distopic m or n
• Spanish: distópico (es)
• Swedish: dystopisk (sv)
• Turkish: distopik (tr)
• Welsh: dystopaidd

dire

Finnish

Noun

dystopian

1. genitive singular of dystopia