diktat

plural diktats

1. countableuncountableA dogmatic decree or command, especially issued by one who rules without popular consent.

   It should be noted that Saddam's power was held up by fear and diktat.

   2005, Vitaly Naumkin, Radical Islam in Central Asia: Between Pen and Rifle, page 179

   5 more examples

   Whatever the pressures that have invoked the Minister's diktat, the outcome is Gilbertian.

   1964 May, “News and Comment: Minister hamstrings BR workshops”, in Modern Railways, page 291

   Today, regional diktat is now supplemented (though not wholly replaced) by other means of recruiting elites.

   1982, Steven L. Sampson, The Planners and the Peasants

   Trump—according not to the paranoid fears of his opponents, but his own professed desires—would have the government’s law enforcement institutions act as political weapons, aimed by his diktat.

   2018, Julian Sanchez, “Brand Loyalty”, in Just Security

   He added that “the issues are still the same” and that Russian President Putin “still wishes to impose his diktat on Ukraine.”

   2022 March 30, “It's 1 a.m. on Thursday in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know”, in CNN

   But amid all the disruption and norm-breaking, it’s Mr. Trump’s apparently keen interest in shaping American culture that may be most intriguing. To critics, it’s nothing less than a sign of his authoritarian bent – reminiscent of the Stalin-esque playbook that made government diktats over artistic expression a feature of the old Soviet Union.

   2025 April 17, Linda Feldmann, “How Donald Trump is upending American culture”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2025

   Synonyms: ukase

2. countabledateduncountableA harsh penalty or settlement imposed upon a defeated party by the victor.

   Even Hitler's success in capturing the allegiance of the masses was due far more to this programmes of social reform than to his denunciations of the Diktats of Versailles or his belief in an expansionist future for Germany.

   1948, E L Hasluck, “Nazi Germany Prepares for the War”, in The Second World War, London: Blackie and Son, page 13