dissident 1 of 2

dissident

2 of 2

noun

as in dissenter
a person who believes, teaches, or advocates something opposed to accepted beliefs the conference drew political dissidents of every ilk

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 dissident
Adjective
In Northern Ireland, dissident IRA groups launched attacks even after the Good Friday Agreement was concluded in 1998, which formally ended the Troubles. Alpaslan Ozerdem, The Conversation, 2 Sep. 2025 Drawing from her private diaries and thousands of analog photographs, the director charts Jarcovjáková’s life from the dissident art circles of communist Czechoslovakia to high-fashion shoots in Tokyo. Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 11 Aug. 2025
Noun
But many dissidents felt profoundly ambivalent toward a society that, despite having become better educated and more urbanized, was also more dependent than ever on the state. Benjamin Nathans september 24, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025 Jazz is an art form with an outsized share of mavericks, rebels, and creative dissidents who’ve built careers by blazing their own particular paths. Andrew Gilbert, Mercury News, 19 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for dissident
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissident
Adjective
  • Board member Renee Paschall cast the lone dissenting vote on the final package.
    Elizabeth Sander, San Antonio Express-News, 19 Aug. 2022
  • The document runs to more than a hundred and fifty pages, and for each question there are affirmative and dissenting studies, as well as some that indicate mixed results.
    The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 3 June 2022
Noun
  • The task force has a record of controversy given its history of targeting protestors, dissenters, and people of color, according to the ACLU.
    Solcyré Burga, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
  • The loudest dissenter was the science-fiction writer Cory Doctorow, who represented the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the consortium.
    Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The Rockets will need to find some unconventional sources of half-court shot creation with VanVleet sidelined with a torn ACL.
    William Guillory, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
  • The unconventional thriller played like gangbusters to the buzzing New York crowd.
    Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 7 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Skarsgård has long been a red carpet renegade, showing flashes of that playful freak that lives within.
    Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 3 Oct. 2025
  • With a running time of 191 minutes, Grindhouse was meant to be a celebration of the exploitation cinema on which the two renegade directors grew up.
    Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The design was by aviation legend Burt Rutan, known for his bold and often maverick creations.
    Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Sinema has modeled her political approach on the maverick style of the late Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who alienated the grassroots of his party by sometimes crossing the aisle to work with Democrats.
    Time, Time, 23 Jan. 2023
Adjective
  • The prolific and iconoclastic filmmaker — who was previously a successful French electronic musician and record producer — is known for his absurdist and quirky sense of humor, as well as his boldness that stands out in the French cinema landscape.
    Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Scallon is also well known for his 15-year stint at Maison Margiela, from 1993 to 2008, working alongside the iconoclastic founder, Martin Margiela, and functioning as communications head, the voice of the house, and ultimately its art director for communications.
    Miles Socha, Footwear News, 25 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • These statements were heretical in Athens, where Anaxagoras lived.
    Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Although the French and Italian religious authorities welcomed their piety, those in Germany tended to suppress them as heretical and revolutionary.
    Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • The cocoa and oil-producing country faces several challenges including a longstanding separatist insurgency by Anglophone separatists and attacks by jihadist groups.
    semafor.com, semafor.com, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has backed separatist forces in the breakaway Transnistria region, as a foothold to keep up pressure on the central government in Chișinău.
    John E. Herbst, Time, 4 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dissident.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissident. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.

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