1
as in discord
a lack of agreement or harmony
considerable dissent within the party's rank and file
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dissention
departure from a generally accepted theory, opinion, or practice
the church reacted to any form of dissent by promptly excommunicating its proponents
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to disagree
to have a different opinion
anyone who dissented was encouraged to speak out while they had the chance
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of dissent
Marni Rose McFall, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
That timing hasn’t been lost on the festival’s critics, who say the high-profile American comics are lending legitimacy to a government that represses dissent, jails activists and restricts free speech.
—Liam Reilly, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
Jack Birle, The Washington Examiner, 22 Sep. 2025
Through cancel culture, the capture of schools and universities, corporate coercion, and media dominance, dissenting voices have been silenced.
—Carolyn McKinney, Boston Herald, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissent
Noun
Critics, though, have argued that these efforts are serving to distract from the country’s record of repressing free speech and dissent, as well as human rights violations, which have been widely reported.
—Marni Rose McFall, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
That timing hasn’t been lost on the festival’s critics, who say the high-profile American comics are lending legitimacy to a government that represses dissent, jails activists and restricts free speech.
—Liam Reilly, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
Verb
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson offered a dissent to the high court’s decision to allow Slaughter to be fired while the case plays out, with a dissenting opinion written by Kagan.
—Jack Birle, The Washington Examiner, 22 Sep. 2025
Through cancel culture, the capture of schools and universities, corporate coercion, and media dominance, dissenting voices have been silenced.
—Carolyn McKinney, Boston Herald, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissent
Noun
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Disboard lists many public discord servers and many young coders use the site, contributing a different demographic of coders.—
Stephen Cass,
IEEE Spectrum,
23 Sep. 2025
-
But warning signs of discord between networks and affiliates had been flashing for years.—
Dade Hayes,
Deadline,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Despite an increase in book bans, polls show that most Americans disagree with them.—
Greta Cross,
USA Today,
5 Oct. 2025
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In the end, Republicans − as the party in power typically does − argue that Congress shouldn't be using a shutdown as leverage to fight over policy, a position that Democrats − as the party out of power often does − disagree with.—
Todd Spangler,
Freep.com,
4 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In the value-investing, human discretion driven ethos of PIMCO this was heresy.—
Vineer Bhansali,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
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The town’s new math is savage in that outrage decays, audiences pay, so ‘respect for Trump’s chops’ is suddenly a hard-nosed business note, not heresy.—
Brie Stimson , Larry Fink,
FOXNews.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Tensions arise when a struggling, idealistic poet meets his girlfriend’s family at their idyllic, hillside countryside home in Hong Sang-soo’s latest feature — a quietly profound meditation on the complexities of filial love and familial strife.—
Christian Blauvelt,
IndieWire,
30 Sep. 2025
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The singer has been compared to the late Amy Winehouse, in part because both are British and have deep, soulful voices that sing about personal strife and conflict.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Yet what distinguishes Bowles’s work—what animates those strange, angular sentences, with their unexpected rhythms and turns of phrase and rabid energy—isn’t its interest in nonconformity but its obsession with spiritual transformation.—
Nicole Flattery,
Harpers Magazine,
19 Sep. 2025
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The character — and those punchlines — carry a different meaning today, as unpacked by this documentary about nonconformity and being seen.—
Chris Foran,
jsonline.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The passage of the ACA in 2010 and its implementation have only intensified this friction.—
Simon F. Haeder,
The Conversation,
3 Oct. 2025
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Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan remain a point of friction and the rhetoric over the corridor has not died down.—
Michele Crestani,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The biographical drama is inspired by the lives of Brazilian activist Eunice Paiva and her politician husband Rubens, who was murdered for his dissidence toward the military dictatorship of 1970s Brazil.—
Edward Segarra,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2025
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If Trump’s first Presidency was characterized by widespread revolt, his second term has so far been defined by the lack of dissidence.—
Brady Brickner-Wood,
The New Yorker,
5 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Robert also produced the film, which followed a group of Southern whiskey runners getting into chases and conflicts with federal agents.—
Andrew McGowan,
Variety,
4 Oct. 2025
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Netanyahu has come under increasing pressure from the international community and Trump to end the conflict.—
Jessica Coacci,
Fortune,
4 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissent. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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