as in agitators
a person who stirs up public feelings especially of discontent
rabble-rousers inciting hungry people in breadlines to demand social justice
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Recent Examples of rabble-rousers
Most of these commentators, influencers, and rabble-rousers operate outside the mainstream-media spotlight, yet their influence is vast, shaping how the next generation thinks about race, gender, government, and truth itself.
—
Clara Molot, Air Mail, 20 Sep. 2025
Clara Molot, Air Mail, 20 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rabble-rousers
Noun
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This has unfolded in a year that saw widespread anti-Israel campus demonstrations that prompted clashes between police and pro-Palestinian agitators as well as congressional hearings.—
Michael Ruiz,
FOXNews.com,
20 Dec. 2025
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Republican leadership and voters followed suit, and fake video clips proliferated whenever agitators saw an opportunity to sow division.—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
14 Dec. 2025
Noun
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By providing only air cover for the rebels, our intervention left the situation on the ground to the local competing forces, tribes and militias, which were divided then and remain divided to this day.—
Thomas L. Friedman,
Mercury News,
6 Jan. 2026
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He's accused of running a network that partnered with violent groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombian FARC rebels and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang.—
Kathryn Palmer,
USA Today,
5 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Julia Mejia arguably received the most favorable committee chairmanship of Worrell’s supporters, with education.—
Gayla Cawley,
Boston Herald,
13 Jan. 2026
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As Venezuelans have slowly emerged from their homes to buy groceries, see family, and go back to work, many are leaving their phones at home, concerned about their devices being searched by armed supporters of the government known as colectivos.—
Brian Bennett,
Time,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Believing the claims of technology promoters that one or another nirvana is just around the corner is a mug’s game.—
Business Columnist,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Jan. 2026
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Versions of this story have been told before, but what distinguishes Love Saves the Day are the more than 300 interviews Lawrence conducted with promoters, partiers, and legendary DJs such as Frankie Knuckles.—
Andrew Holter,
The Atlantic,
31 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Third parties, which are usually based on fringe views or a sense of grievance, are vehicles for ideologues, provocateurs and contrarians whose appeal is as limited as their problem-solving skills.—
Newsweek Contributors,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Nov. 2025
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Dynevor, meanwhile, finds texture in a villainous role that rightly reminds us how petty personal grievances (on campus, no less) may well be the driving force behind the most outspoken political provocateurs.—
Manuel Betancourt,
Variety,
29 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In turn, the erosion of trust has weakened the social contract that sustains representative government, leaving democracies more vulnerable to populist demagogues, institutional paralysis, and the gradual normalization of authoritarian alternatives.—
NIC CHEESEMAN,
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
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Studies show that as a result of these cycles, Americans on the left and right have developed an exaggerated sense of the other side’s hostility, exactly as some political demagogues intend.—
Adam G. Klein,
The Conversation,
12 Nov. 2025
Noun
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In the eighties, Petro was a member of the M-19, urban insurgents who caught the world’s attention by taking the American Ambassador and more than a dozen other foreign diplomats hostage for two months.—
Jon Lee Anderson,
New Yorker,
15 Jan. 2026
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Syria’s al-Assad went down after Israel gutted Lebanese Hezbollah, following which Turkish aided and directed insurgents representing a minority of the country marched into Damascus.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
4 Jan. 2026
Noun
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But proponents of the industry claim that the environmental costs still net out as a plus since the space data centers take processing off the fossil-fuel-burning grid.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
7 Jan. 2026
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One of the biggest proponents of the capri resurgence, the supermodel has been making a stylish case for cropped pants since last summer—and her latest iteration takes the divisive Noughties silhouette into Italian girl style territory.—
Lara Walsh,
InStyle,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rabble-rousers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rabble-rousers. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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