ARISTO'CRACY, noun [Gr. best, and to hold or govern.] A form of government, in which the whole supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state; or in a few men distinguished by their rank and opulence. When the supreme power is exercised by a small number, the government is called an oligarchy. The latter word however is usually applied to a corrupted form of aristocracy
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI