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In "provocateur," a word borrowed directly from French, one sees the English verb "provoke." Both "provoke" and "provocateur" derive from Latin provocare, meaning "to call forth." Why do we say "provocateur" for one who incites another to action, instead of simply "provoker"? Perhaps it's because of "agent provocateur," a term of French origin that literally means "provoking agent." Both "agent provocateur" and the shortened "provocateur" can refer to someone (such as an undercover police officer or a political operative) whose job is to incite people to break the law so that they can be arrested, but only "provocateur" is used in English with the more general sense of "one who provokes."
Synonyms of provocateur
Examples of provocateur in a Sentence
Jake Angelo, Fortune, 14 Feb. 2026
Last month, the right-wing provocateur appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show to discuss his new video series, Real History With Matt Walsh.
—Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
The movie follows the story of Elliot (Hoffman), an unmotivated twenty-something who secures a job with artist and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde).
—Christina Perrier, InStyle, 10 Feb. 2026
The official channels to Censori have run through her husband’s company Yeezy, where Censori leads the architecture department, and through Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur who had worked on Ye’s 2024 presidential campaign.
—Anna Peele, Vanity Fair, 6 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for provocateur
Cite this Entry
“Provocateur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/provocateur. Accessed 25 Feb. 2026.
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