DYSTOPIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dystopia mean? 

• DYSTOPIA (noun)
  The noun DYSTOPIA has 2 senses:

1. state in which the conditions of life are extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror

2. a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror

  Familiarity information: DYSTOPIA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DYSTOPIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

State in which the conditions of life are extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("dystopia" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Antonym:

utopia (ideally perfect state; especially in its social and political and moral aspects)

Derivation:

dystopian (as bad as can be; characterized by human misery)

dystopian (of or pertaining to or resembling a dystopia)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("dystopia" is a kind of...):

fiction (a literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact)

 Context examples 

Hypnopedia, or the ability to learn during sleep, was popularized in the '60s, with for example the dystopia Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, in which individuals are conditioned to their future tasks during sleep. This concept has been progressively abandoned due to a lack of reliable scientific evidence supporting in-sleep learning abilities.

(Learning While Sleeping?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)