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cottonocracy

noun

A government dominated by the cotton industry, as in the United States before the American Civil War.

Scrabble 21

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Meanings

nouncottonocracy (plural not attested)

UShistoricalno pluralA government dominated by the cotton industry, as in the United States before the American Civil War.
The Lancashire cottonocracy was still waiting for El Dorado, and was quite prepared to believe that the opium trade was delaying its arrival.
1996, Bill Schwarz, The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History
2 more examples
The whole school argue political or national economy as a party question: it is Cottonocracy versus Cornocracy — the nation is to be crucified between them.
1840, Robert Owen, The New Moral World, volume 7, page 1027
Make a question between our nation and England about fifty desarters^([sic]), and if the ministers of the day only dared to talk of fighting, the members of all the manufactoren^([sic]) towns in England, the cottonocracy of Great Britain, would desert too!
1855, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Nature and human nature, page 23

Origin

From cotton + -o- + -cracy.

Full word history & related roots →

Cite this entry

APA

cottonocracy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottonocracy

MLA

“cottonocracy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottonocracy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cottonocracy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cottonocracy.

Source: cottonocracy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.