necropower

N1E1C3R1O1P3O1W4E1R1

noun

Power over life and death, or over deadly activities and products such as assassination, weapons, the death penalty, etc.

Scrabble 17
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Meanings

nounnecropower (uncountable)
  1. uncountablePower over life and death, or over deadly activities and products such as assassination, weapons, the death penalty, etc.

    In wielding this necropower the ultimate site of deployment of this new form of sovereignty is no longer the body as such, but the dead body of the African civilian.

    2017, Kenneth Omeje, The Crises of Postcoloniality in Africa, page 218
    2 more examples

    The portrayal in Kontroll of the underground space of the Budapest subway system as a site of potential resistance against the multiple manifestations of necropower, […]

    2011, Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Louise Olga Vasvári, Comparative Hungarian Cultural Studies, page 281

    Exposure to the gorgoneion exposes the viewer to necropower; in the context of asylum the visibility of the asylum seeker thus potentially exposes the complicity of the normal situation in necropower.

    2011, David Farrier, Postcolonial Asylum: Seeking Sanctuary Before the Law, page 68

Origin

From necro- + power.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

necropower. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/necropower

MLA

“necropower.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/necropower. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “necropower,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/necropower.

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