What's the difference between ruler and tyrant?

Ruler


Definition:

  • (n.) One who rules; one who exercises sway or authority; a governor.
  • (n.) A straight or curved strip of wood, metal, etc., with a smooth edge, used for guiding a pen or pencil in drawing lines. Cf. Rule, n., 7 (a).

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In his notorious 1835 Minute on Education , Lord Macaulay articulated the classic reason for teaching English, but only to a small minority of Indians: “We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” The language was taught to a few to serve as intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled.
  • (2) After violence had run its bloody course, the country’s rulers conceded it had been a catastrophe that had brought nothing but “grave disorder, damage and retrogression”.
  • (3) A modification of a previously described curved ruler, the current model has a hinge for greater ease of maneuverability and a "T" piece on one end to facilitate measurement and marking of both poles of the muscle without repositioning the ruler.
  • (4) Fail, and the nation’s rulers face embarrassment in front of a television audience of more than a billion.
  • (5) The former military ruler won the key prize of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, but at one point his lead was cut to 500,000 votes after landslide victories for Jonathan in his southern Delta homeland.
  • (6) The ruler is especially helpful when one is doing large recessions and posterior fixation of the recti muscles (Faden operation).
  • (7) While Egypt's military rulers were quick to blame football hooliganism, a group of hardline Al Ahly fans, known as ultras, accused the police of intentionally letting rivals attack them because of their historic antipathy to the security forces and their role at the forefront of anti-Mubarak protests a year ago.
  • (8) What was it that so alarmed Brazil's military rulers, and why, 40 years on, does Tropicália still inspire as well as provoke?
  • (9) Throughout ancient Egyptian history, rulers changed capitals to enforce a sense of national renewal or unity – a trend that began with the first purpose-built capital of a united Egypt , some 5,000 years ago.
  • (10) This civilisation was later cross-fertilised by new influences brought by the Kushans who succeeded the Bactrian Greeks as rulers of Afghanistan, while adopting much of their culture.
  • (11) But the SNP has plenty to learn from the home rulers at Westminster.
  • (12) The one thing romantics have to remember is that though you might well try to stop your daughter getting mixed up with one, there is no necessary connection between being a good ruler and being a loving and faithful mate.
  • (13) Using the technique and the ruler described by Schei et al., the radiographic height of the alveolar crest from the cemento-enamel junction was determined.
  • (14) Quantitative analysis of the density data is consistent with the presence of up to six strands of a protein molecule in the central channel that could serve as the template or ruler structure that determines the length of the bacteriophage tail and that could be injected into the cell with the phage DNA.
  • (15) Meles Zenawi , the cerebral ruler of Ethiopia for the last 21 years, is a man with many reputations.
  • (16) In that same 2010 fundraiser speech, Perry described his mission as "bigger than any law or policy," of being engaged in a struggle not of "flesh and blood," but "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms".
  • (17) Abdul Halim, who was installed as ruler of his state in 1958, has been described by his family as a caring leader and a fan of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.
  • (18) A poor citizen can’t even find one kilogramme of rice on the street,” he said, arguing that the country’s rulers would face divine judgment for what they were doing to the poor.
  • (19) Diplomatic tensions also intensified with Bahrain recalling its ambassador to Tehran, following the Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar's warning on Monday that Bahrain's rulers and the Gulf states who have sent troops to the kingdom needed to act with "wisdom and caution".
  • (20) Mugabe’s officials have repeatedly accused the US of seeking regime change, a common charge levelled by rulers across the continent.

Tyrant


Definition:

  • (n.) An absolute ruler; a sovereign unrestrained by law or constitution; a usurper of sovereignty.
  • (n.) Specifically, a monarch, or other ruler or master, who uses power to oppress his subjects; a person who exercises unlawful authority, or lawful authority in an unlawful manner; one who by taxation, injustice, or cruel punishment, or the demand of unreasonable services, imposes burdens and hardships on those under his control, which law and humanity do not authorize, or which the purposes of government do not require; a cruel master; an oppressor.
  • (n.) Any one of numerous species of American clamatorial birds belonging to the family Tyrannidae; -- called also tyrant bird.
  • (v. i.) To act like a tyrant; to play the tyrant; to tyrannical.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The fall of a tyrant is usually the cause of popular rejoicing followed by public vengeance.
  • (2) While the Spielberg of popular myth is Mr Nice Guy, Lean was known as an obsessive, cantankerous tyrant who didn't much like actors and was only truly happy locked away in the editing suite.
  • (3) "Sometimes a handshake is just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raúl Castro , it becomes a propaganda coup for the tyrant," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican Congress member in Florida, told the US secretary of state, John Kerry.
  • (4) One of the two last strongholds of Gaddafi loyalists, the town of Bani Walid, has finally been contained, Libya's interim government has claimed, leaving only parts of the ousted tyrant's birthplace out of rebel reach.
  • (5) So long as tyrants and terrorists chase innocents around the globe, we must offer them refuge.
  • (6) Thinking the fatwa was little more than the empty threat of a faraway tyrant, Theroux called out to Rushdie: "Next week we'll be back here for you!"
  • (7) The phrase "time to water the tree of liberty" - a reference to a famous quotation from Thomas Jefferson, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" - is also frequently used by a right wing group called Stormfront , motto White Pride World Wide.
  • (8) Its words are an attack on tyrants and despots, and a call for liberty.
  • (9) He is a tyrant and he needs to be expelled from the newspaper."
  • (10) Other tyrants, including, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, appeared equally unconcerned about the ICC.
  • (11) Fearful of an imminent military breakthrough by Iran, the agency passed on Iranian troop positions to the Iraqi tyrant, " fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin ".
  • (12) "The Tyrant's In His Pants," said the Sun's headline, while the Post opted for "Butcher of Sagdad" against an image of Hussein wearing nothing more than a pair of white Y-fronts.
  • (13) A toy autocracy may easily invite a real one; it was recently revealed that nuclear war would have made the monarch a genuine tyrant with the power to appoint a prime minister without an election, although it is hard to imagine Elizabeth II – with her rugs bearing a knitted royal crest, and her tiny dogs – as Gaius Julius Caesar.
  • (14) On the face of it, algorithms – "step-by-step procedures for calculations" – seem unlikely candidates for the role of tyrant.
  • (15) He might, according to people who know him, be a nerdy academic, but he was also a tyrant, according to Blanchflower , a “my way or the highway” boss who ran the place with an iron fist.
  • (16) If we’re supposed to become nails in the coffin of a tyrant, I’d like to become one of those nails.
  • (17) Devout Muslims consider it a sacrilege for infidels to depose a Muslim tyrant and occupy Muslim lands — no matter how well intentioned the infidels or malevolent the tyrant.
  • (18) Mobutu Nzanga said he is proud of his father, despite the commonly held view that he was a kleptocratic tyrant.
  • (19) The letter says : “As rabbis and cantors we regularly read the story of a band of refugees who escaped from a tyrant with only the clothes on their backs and a bit of flat bread.
  • (20) In a video posted on social media on Sunday, a man purporting to be Shekau addresses the “tyrants of Nigeria in particular and the west of Africa in general,” saying: “You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me, and here I am.” The speaker says: “I will not be killed until my time comes.” Last month, Nigeria’s air force said it had killed senior members of Boko Haram and that Shekau had been injured .