独裁
どくさい · dokusai · JLPT N1 · noun
dictatorship
独 — dog radical 犭 + 蜀 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 犭 (dog) gives the meaning, since dogs were thought to fight when kept together and so were often kept singly, while 蜀 supplies the sound. The original sense was 'solitary dog,' which broadened to 'alone, single, only.'
裁 — 戈 (halberd) + 𢦏 (phonetic, to cut)
裁 originally depicted cutting cloth with a blade, combining 衣 (clothing, embedded in the character) with 𢦏 as the phonetic component suggesting cutting. The core meaning 'to cut cloth' extended to tailoring, then broadly to 'judge, decide, reduce' — as in deciding by cutting away. Modern uses include 裁判 (judge) and 裁缝 (tailor).