DEMAGOGUES Synonyms: 46 Similar and Opposite Words

demagogues

noun

variants also demagogs

plural of demagogue

as in agitators

a person who stirs up public feelings especially of discontent that politician is just a demagogue who preys upon people's fears and prejudices

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 demagogues But those standards can be easily stretched by demagogues, and a simple majority on the committee is enough to ban a party, though a panel of nine Supreme Court justices can overturn the decision on appeal. —

Bernard Avishai, New Yorker, 18 May 2026 But demeaning our brand through association with vulgar demagogues is a losing strategy. —

Alma Hernandez, New York Daily News, 1 May 2026 Does the rise of right-wing demagogues offer chilling parallels to the Pinochet era? —

Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 22 Apr. 2026 Leftist demagogues specialize in lose-lose-lose policies. —

Editorial, Boston Herald, 6 Apr. 2026 Certainly Arendt, who lived through arguably darker times, did not see them as merely a product of the era’s monstrous demagogues. —

Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026 Following the outbreak of COVID-19, bias incidents and assaults against Asian Americans soared to alarming heights as demagogues on the streets and in high office inflamed xenophobic fear and animosity. —

Literary Hub, 16 Mar. 2026 In the long term, this failure to address deep social problems contributes to the erosion of people’s trust in governments and institutions, breeding nihilism and an attraction to demagogues who claim to have easy answers. —

Rob Wolfe, The Atlantic, 19 Feb. 2026 Without a robust legitimacy narrative, demagogues fill the vacuum. —

Annelise Riles, Chicago Tribune, 4 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for demagogues

Noun

In January, a DHS official sent a memo to some federal immigration agents temporarily assigned to Minneapolis instructing them to collect personal information about protesters and agitators, including license plates, identifications and images, according to CNN reporting.

— Jude Joffe-Block, NPR, 10 June 2026
Shocking video captured the moments anti-ICE agitators were arrested outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, Friday, during riotous confrontations.

— Alexandra Koch, FOXNews.com, 6 June 2026