COUP D'ÉTAT Synonyms: 20 Similar and Opposite Words

coup d'état

noun

variants or coup d'etat

Definition of coup d'état

as in coup

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of coup d'état General Muhammadu Buhari, dictator of Nigeria, following a successful coup d'etat against Shehu Shagari. — Adeola Adeosun, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 July 2025 Spain The former king of Spain, Juan Carlos, saw an explosion of popularity in the 1980s after helping to foil a coup d'etat attempt. — Justin Klawans, theweek, 27 Feb. 2024 The ceremony came after Nguema seized power in a coup d'etat last week, in the latest usurping of control in African countries. — Justin Klawans, The Week, 4 Sep. 2023 Also in attendance at that event was the junta leader who seized power in Guinea a little over a year after Mali's coup d'etat. — Krista Larson, ajc, 24 Sep. 2022 See All Example Sentences for coup d'état

Recent Examples of Synonyms for coup d'état

Noun

Goaded on by a governor, who handpicked the university president and staged a coup to overthrow one athletic director in order to hire Kiffin, the bayou bandits are proudly wearing their black hats.

— Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026
The severe inflation of 1923 and the rise of the nationalist movement are portrayed in their true colors, but both the degree of profiteering and the engineering of right-wing coups are exaggerated for effect.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Sep. 2026

Definition of coup

Noun

Rahman founded AmeriBangla in 2024 in response to trade disruption after the overthrow of the Awami League regime in Bangladesh.

— Jennifer Bringle, Footwear News, 31 Aug. 2026
The ultraconservative religio-political movement emerged that year amid the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the overthrow of the communist government in 1992 (see Afghan War).

— Andrew Pereira, Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of overthrow

Noun

The tax revolt was a successful attempt by a small group of ideologues to capitalize on people’s justifiable anger at the cost-of-living crisis that followed the war in Vietnam, along with California’s runaway home prices.

— Maggie McGowan, The New York Review of Books, 5 Sep. 2026
Corbet issued a statement defending the AI use cases amid swelling online revolt.

— Jake Angelo, semafor.com, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of revolt

Noun

Amendment is also a constitution’s mechanism for the prevention of insurrection.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 Sep. 2026
As Port falls in with a group of conspirators preparing for the insurrection, the book takes on a hallucinatory, digressive quality, blurring the lines between life and death, reality and illusion.

— The New Yorker, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026

Definition of insurrection

Noun

Suddenly, the humble farmer has incited a countrywide uprising.

— Antonia Blyth, Deadline, 4 Sep. 2026
Following the Second World War, the United Kingdom had introduced a new National Service Act; in the early fifties, this often meant fighting in Korea, or battling an uprising against colonial rule in British Malaya, where Ascherson was deployed.

— Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of uprising

Noun

But the problem that helped thrust Tinubu’s APC into power is now a multi-headed hydra that goes far beyond the northeastern jihadist insurgency.

— Alexis Akwagyiram, semafor.com, 31 Aug. 2026
At the same time, the Tea Party insurgency in the Republican Party starting in 2010, where many right-wing candidates succeeded, shows there is a pathway for someone on one edge of the political spectrum to win higher office.

— Joanna Ossinger, CNBC, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of insurgency

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coup

coup d'état

coup d'oeil

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“Coup d'état.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coup%20d%27%C3%A9tat. Accessed 16 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of coup d'état

noun

Example Sentences

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