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Money
(n.)
A social and economic order where luck and randomness decide who succeeds, while merit and hard work seem to matter less.
Her novel had been published 12 years ago, but what finally propelled her into the aleagarchy was a million likes on a video of a stranger sobbing about it in a cafe.
Does it ring true?
From the future, or already here?
From the Latin alea, a die, echoing oligarchy, rule by the few; this is rule by the dice: the anti-meritocracy. The political equivalent is aleatocracy, filling public office by lot, as Athens once did. That was to safeguard against ambition; now culture and the economy move so fast that the smallest action can have wildly outsized, unpredictable consequences. Pronounced ah-LEE-uh-gar-kee.
Future Words: A Non-Obvious Glossary of Terms That Don’t Exist (But Soon Will) collects all 100, each with its example sentence and coinage notes, from the bestselling authors of The Future Normal. Hardcover, October 20, 2026.