Tyranny

The word “tyranny” means “the government of an absolute ruler”. It is of course used in political contexts, but it’s also used figuratively to mean “cruel power”. There are scores of books titled “The Tyranny of ${X}”, where X can be “Merit”, “Experts”, “Choice”, and so on.

Several similar words with different parts of speech include “tyrant” (meaning “an absolute ruler”) and “tyrannize” (meaning “to exercise absolute rule”).

The word “tyrannosaurus”¹ comes from the same origin, with the suffix “-saurus” that forms words relating to dinosaurs (the Ancient Greek “σαύρᾱ” (saúrā) means “lizard”). Therefore, “tyrannosaurus rex” (“rex” meaning “king”) literally translates to “king tyrant lizard”, which totally makes sense.