1
as in deserters
a person who abandons a cause or organization usually without right
an apostate from communism, he later became one of its harshest critics
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in traitors
one who betrays a trust or an allegiance
became an apostate to liberalism after he had gotten wealthy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of apostates
Brown and O’Neill cast themselves less as Sandberg’s heirs than as her apostates.
—
Katy Waldman,
New Yorker,
20 Oct. 2025
In Iran, Baha’is are considered to be apostates and face persecution, marked by extreme violence including extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary detention.
—
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Katy Waldman,
New Yorker,
20 Oct. 2025
In Iran, Baha’is are considered to be apostates and face persecution, marked by extreme violence including extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary detention.
—
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apostates
Noun
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And within his own country’s history, particularly, Dhont discovered the fates that met would-be deserters who were caught — brutal sentences often leading to death.
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Harry Truman granted amnesty to certain World War II deserters, while Jimmy Carter granted pardons to hundreds of thousands of individuals who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.
Noun
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Keep your actual and suspected traitors closer – the non-loyal, uncommitted, secretive, suspicious, dishonest, deceitful, chronically negative, and regularly undermining.
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Both groups were accused of being spies, traitors and collaborators, according to the report.
Noun
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There are Sixties rock bands like the Sonics and the Small Faces, and pioneering hippie renegades like Love or the Thirteenth Floor Elevators.
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People didn’t come to the series with a working knowledge of the State Department, ready to see what the renegades were like.
Noun
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And the old person who rebels is ridiculous.
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There was relative peace for 11 years, until a second civil war erupted in 1983, when leaders in Khartoum imposed sharia (Islamic) law and accelerated repression of the southern Christian rebels, which ultimately allowed a ruthless military officer, Omar al-Bashir, to come to power in 1989.
Noun
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Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has long seen clashes between security forces, insurgents and drug smugglers.
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Nine American soldiers died and 27 others were injured while fighting a battle against 200 Taliban insurgents in the village of Wanat in Afghanistan’s Waygal Valley.
Cite this Entry
“Apostates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apostates. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.
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