anti-institutional

adjective

an·​ti-in·​sti·​tu·​tion·​al ˌan-tē-ˌin(t)-stə-ˈt(y)ü-sh(ə-)nəl  ˌan-tī- 

: characterized by or expressing opposition toward institutions

… the anti-institutional protests of the civil rights movement.

—Adam Fairclough

Examples of anti-institutional in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Turner gave me a framework for understanding how a profoundly anti-institutional ethos took hold, one that treated democratic institutions as obstacles to be bulldozed on the way to cyber-utopia. — Literary Hub, 10 Aug. 2026

But there’s also a risk of setting a precedent that anti-institutional Republicans get to smash things, which pro-institutional Democrats must then clean up. — David Frum, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2026

His message—brash, conspiratorial, and anti-institutional—continues to resonate with a large segment of the population. — Veronica Anghel, Foreign Affairs, 21 May 2025

But there is a profound danger, always bubbling just below the surface, of anti-institutional sentiment going too far. — Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Mar. 2025

Increasingly, Levin noted, anti-corporate and anti-institutional subcultures operate across the ideological spectrum. — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 14 Dec. 2024

Unlike his father, who could be reflexively countercultural and anti-institutional, Ras Baraka has been running for office for most of his life. — Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024

Sign up The anti-institutional unschooling ideology is rooted in the doctrine of eighth century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed children should be free to explore their own interests. — Theara Coleman, theweek, 11 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1836, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for anti-institutional

• interinstitutional
• attributional
• constitutional
• convolutional
• distributional
• institutional
• involutional
• substitutional
• noninstitutional
• unconstitutional