antifa

noun

an·​ti·​fa an-ˈtē-fə 

ˈan-tē-ˌfä

variants or less commonly Antifa

1

: a person or group actively opposing fascism

The groups … prominently featured about 100 Christian ministers in clerical garb, angry Charlottesville residents, peace advocates, Black Lives Matter activists, and self-styled anti-fascists who call themselves "antifas" …

—Peter Weber

After the war, Antifas varied in size and composition across the former Reich, now divided into four zones of occupation, and developed in interaction with the local occupying power.

—Loren Balhorn

2

: an anti-fascist movement

Antifa is the backlash to the backlash, a defensive response to the growing presence of right-wing extremism.

—Todd Gitlin

antifa adjective

antifa protesters

Examples of antifa in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Suggestions range from yanking away the tax-free status of progressive foundations who make grants to liberal causes to designating antifa as a terrorist organization, as Trump did in an executive order last week. —Emily Brooks, The Hill, 24 Sep. 2025

The president indicated his support for designating antifa as a domestic terror organization earlier in the week, prompting the House of Representatives to expedite legislation by a conservative Republican lawmaker to do just that. —Josh Meyer, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025

The president's declaration comes as top Republican leaders have suggested, without evidence, that antifa may have been involved in the shooting death of Kirk, NPR's Odette Yousef says. —Brittney Melton, NPR, 19 Sep. 2025

No further details were immediately available about the timing of the possible designation of antifa as a domestic terror organization. —Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from German Antifa, short for antifaschistisch "anti-fascist," in Antifaschistische Aktion (multiparty front initiated by the German Communist Party in 1932 to counter Nazism) and in other collocations

First Known Use

1946, in the meaning defined at sense 1