dystopia
1 synonym and 1 antonym for dystopia, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — An imagined society in which life is deliberately made bad — typically through oppression, surveillance, environmental ruin or total state control.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
anti-utopia
Antonyms
How to use dystopia
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
a dystopia
techno-dystopia
dystopian fiction
Etymology
From Greek "dys-" (bad, difficult) plus "topos" (place), formed as the direct opposite of utopia.
Full origin of dystopia →Frequently asked questions
What is a dystopia?
An imagined society organised so that life in it is deliberately grim — through authoritarian control, surveillance, scarcity or ecological collapse. It is the opposite of a utopia, and usually written as a warning about a trend in the author's own time.
What is the difference between dystopia and dystopian?
"Dystopia" is the noun — the place or society itself. "Dystopian" is the adjective describing it: a dystopian novel, a dystopian future.
Is dystopia the opposite of utopia?
Yes. Utopia is a place made ideal, dystopia a place made deliberately bad. Both are built on the Greek "topos," meaning place.
