coup d'état

Definitions

The sudden overthrow of a government, differing from a revolution by being carried out by a small group of people who replace only the leading figures.

Equivalents

Examples

“The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest allies are among dozens of people formally accused by federal police of being part of a criminal conspiracy designed to obliterate Brazil’s democratic system through a rightwing coup d’état.”

“The truth of the axiom that there is nothing so successful as success, is more conclusively proved by the Coup d’Etat of Louis Napoleon than by any other event of the period.”

“These documents throw⟳ light⟳ on many features of the coup d’etat of December 2, 1851, and the plebiscite which followed it.”

“[Chapter] 14. Coup d’Etat”

CEFR level