dystopia
dis-TOH-pee-uhnounMeaning an imagined society where life is miserable and people are not free
Memory hook DYS + TOPIA: a BAD PLACE. In the story, robots patrol gray streets under a sign that says NO SINGING, and nobody smiles; that miserable imagined world is a dystopia.
The novel is set in a gray dystopia where no one is allowed to sing.
In context Unlike the cheerful future in her first book, her new story imagines a dystopia: a crowded city where every word is recorded and no one dares to laugh.
Similar nightmare world, anti-utopia
Opposite utopia, paradise
Made from dys- (bad) + utopia, the name of an ideal land, from Greek ou (not) + topos (place).