Definition of putsch
: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government
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Recent Examples of putsch from the Web
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That led to his ouster by another putsch in August 1983 headed by his own defense minister.
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In power, Rios Montt alienated a broad spectrum of society, including the military, businesspeople and the Catholic Church, leading to his ouster by another putsch in August 1983 led by his own defense minister.
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The Justice Ministry said in July that more than 50,000 people had been arrested and 169,013 subjected to legal proceedings since the putsch.
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The same month, the army orchestrated its latest coup, one of a dozen successful putsches carried out since Thailand abandoned absolute monarchy in 1932.
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Meanwhile, May, whose leadership has looked shaky since June’s election, is beset by constant rumors of a putsch in her Conservative party.
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But any trace of American involvement in the putsch had been wiped from the report, causing historians to call it a fraud.
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The number of lèse-majesté cases has exceeded 100 since the putsch.
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But any trace of American involvement in the putsch had been wiped from the report, causing historians to call it a fraud.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'putsch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
In its native Swiss German, putsch originally meant "knock" or "thrust," but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a coup d'état. Putsch debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler himself even attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.
Origin and Etymology of putsch
German
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