PARTISANS Synonyms: 117 Similar and Opposite Words

partisans

noun

variants also partizans

plural of partisan

as in adherents

one who follows the opinions or teachings of another partisans of the charismatic leader refuse to tolerate any criticism of him at all

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in militants

one who is intensely or excessively devoted to a cause a partisan of the revolution who was even willing to give her life for it

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in sectarians

one who stubbornly or intolerantly adheres to his or her own opinions and prejudices she's too much of a political partisan to ever concede that the other side might have a valid point

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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 partisans Exhibited for the first time outside of Sarajevo, the churning Socialist Realist homage invokes Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People in figuring partisans heroically overcoming their would-be Nazi aggressors. — Ara H. Merjian, ARTnews.com, 10 July 2026 Reynolds tracks the willingness of northern partisans—Carl Schurz, Horace Greeley, Lyman Trumbull, and even Sumner himself—to abandon that cause by the dwindling references to Jamestown and Plymouth. — James Traub, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026 Meanwhile, partisans continued to spar over dozens of Republican bills that would allow voters to lower property taxes for homeowners by raising sales taxes on everyone. — David Wickert, AJC.com, 23 June 2026 The mood was jovial, and any banter between the English and Croatian partisans was playful. — Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 June 2026 His lone goal delighted the Swiss partisans, who were banished to the second level of the stadium. — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 13 June 2026 The mood this time was understandably less buoyant among the Knicks partisans. — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 9 June 2026 But there's also a dynamic here where the partisans on each side justify themselves by looking at the bad examples on the other side. — ABC News, 7 June 2026 With a large pack of Democrats running and just two serious Republican contenders, Democratic partisans feared their fractured vote would let the GOP nab both spots in Tuesday’s top-two primary. — Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for partisans

Noun

Sloganeering was the lingua franca of what adherents referred to as the Stanley Opportunity.

— Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 15 July 2026
Baric worked closely with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which many adherents to the lab-leak theory posit as the source of the pandemic; one contingent thinks that Baric might have been the creator of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

— Daniel Engber, The Atlantic, 7 July 2026

Definition of adherents

Noun

Investors were also digesting news that the Houthi militants in Yemen declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia.

— Sam Meredith,Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 20 July 2026
People in northwest Nigeria are caught between regular attacks by bandit groups who specialize in kidnapping for ransom and Islamist militants who have been expanding their territory.

— ABC News, ABC News, 19 July 2026

Definition of militants

Noun

The Northernmost Tree For now, most commercial breadfruit groves are still setting root, leaving the growing to the same type of people who once introduced it to the region — the plant fanatics.

— Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026
Democrats, whose brand is viewed as too left-wing in five out of six Senate-battleground states, should be similarly wary of fanatics trying to infiltrate their ranks.

— James Kirchick, The Atlantic, 21 July 2026

Definition of fanatics

Noun

Supporters embraced the insult as a badge of resilience, turning it into a satirical political campaign that amassed more than 21 million Instagram followers in a few days.

— ABC News, ABC News, 18 July 2026
Mascots, once an afterthought, are celebrities—Gritty, the beguiling ogre that represents Philadelphia’s hockey team, the Flyers, has significantly more Instagram followers than any of the team’s players.

— Ellen Cushing, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026

Definition of followers

Noun

The California State Fair and Embarc’s team are honoring the activists who were on the front line of the fight throughout the festival’s run this year.

— Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 19 July 2026
The issue has come to consume much of the party’s energy, with hardly a Democratic event going by without disruptions from pro-Palestinian activists.

— Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 19 July 2026

Definition of activists

Noun

The nationalists were members of the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787 to draft the successor to the articles, the United States Constitution.

— Donovan Fifield, Fortune, 19 July 2026
Christian nationalists — once existing in the margins of American Christianity — have become mainstream in recent years, establishing churches that host some of the nation’s most powerful politicians.

— Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 18 July 2026

Definition of nationalists

Noun

Back in his coaching career, Cruyff was one of the first managers to be obsessed with the cut of the pitch — a trait that has passed over to his disciples, most notably the exacting Pep Guardiola.

— Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 25 June 2026
Christian Science teaches that the divine laws of Truth and Life, as demonstrated by Jesus and his disciples, continue to operate today as an eternal, demonstrable Science.

— Alistair Budd, Christian Science Monitor, 24 June 2026

Definition of disciples

Noun

The book is full of stories of villains, like the venomous heroin that took so many of Seattle’s crusaders as well as the music industry that never quite understood where Soundgarden belonged.

— Selena Fragassi, SPIN, 9 June 2026
The facility remains popular among anti-immigrant crusaders, and Attorney General Uthmeier’s campaign store sells Alligator Alcatraz bumper stickers, T-shirts, and caps.

— Eric Schlosser, The Atlantic, 4 June 2026

Definition of crusaders

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“Partisans.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/partisans. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of partisans

noun

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