as in rebel
someone who tries to overthrow or undermine a governing power
They were outted as subversives and exiled from the country.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in violent
seeking to overthrow or undermine a governing power
A subversive organization determined to unseat a leader who they believed operated outside the law.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for subversive
Noun
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Iran has also for years militarily and financially supported regional militia groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza, that have pressured or attacked Israel on multiple fronts.—
Kim Hjelmgaard,
USA Today,
14 June 2025 -
Worried about Michilimackinac’s vulnerability to attacks by American rebels, the British relocated the fort to the high bluffs of Mackinac Island in 1780 and shortened its name.—
Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
9 June 2025
Adjective
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Noni finds herself up against Lion’s violent henchmen and women in series of fight-to-the-death encounters aboard the tyrant’s grandiose sailing ship, which lies at the heart of a vast naval fleet.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
9 June 2025
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The protests had been largely peaceful throughout Friday and Saturday, with isolated instances of violent activity.—
Michael Wilner,
Los Angeles Times,
9 June 2025
Noun
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Authorities have also reported sightings of ELN guerrillas, a Colombian-Venezuelan insurgent faction, operating near key Guyanese border towns.—
Antonio Maria Delgado,
Miami Herald,
6 June 2025
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Spain approved the deal on Oct. 3, 2023, four days before an insurgent assault led by Hamas on southern Israel that sparked a devastating war in Gaza.—
Brittany Williams,
Arkansas Online,
4 June 2025
Adjective
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How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food The prose in Nigella Lawson’s revolutionary How to Eat is evocative enough that you will be tempted to read it like a novel.—
Hayley Maitland,
Vogue,
7 June 2025
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The problem with most revolutionary acts is that the message is lost on normies.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
6 June 2025
Noun
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From anarchists to orders Antonio Gramsci, the early 20th-century Italian Marxist theorist, expanded the concept of hegemony beyond international relations into a class analysis.—
Andrew Latham,
The Conversation,
30 May 2025
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Greenwich Village was thick with activists, artists, and anarchists; Harlem was having its Renaissance.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
5 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Subversive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subversive. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.
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