as in invaders
one that starts armed conflict against another especially without reasonable cause
villagers lived in constant fear of the raiders, who captured their women and children and sold them into slavery
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Recent Examples of raiders
The Taopiaopiao release centers on an underperforming local police unit that fabricates minor cases to pad its record, only to uncover a genuine criminal conspiracy after a burst water main exposes a gang of tomb raiders posing as repair workers.
—
Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 9 Feb. 2026
Vestar was born in 1988 during private equity’s first boom, the same year a brash NYC firm known as Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts took down mighty RJR Nabisco for $25 billion ($70 billion in today’s terms), back when deals were called LBOs and dealmakers were known as corporate raiders.
—Hank Tucker, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Nor did their eyes shed tears over the burning library that raiders furnished with the ashes of seven thousand books, which the novelist Mamdouh Azzam had collected over fifty years inside his house in Suwayda.
—Literary Hub, 15 Jan. 2026
The Tofinu took refuge in the lagoons along the Bight of Benin, a core area of the slave trade, venturing forth in canoes with harpoons, javelins, and swords to fight off raiders from powerful nearby kingdoms.
—Laurent Dubois, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026
Set two-hundred years after atomic armageddon, residents of Vault-Tec’s network of luxury fallout habitats begin to explore the radioactive territory outside their shelters and discover a nightmarish world of militant factions, irradiated creatures, vicious raiders, and feral monsters.
—Jeff Spry, Space.com, 16 Dec. 2025
No disrespect to Purnell, who perfectly calibrated Lucy’s intrinsic hopefulness in the first season and slowly begins to curdle it this go-round as Lucy spends more time among ghouls, raiders, cannibals, and various other feuding factions.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
Its namesake, cattleman Oliver Loving, was shot by a band of raiders during a cattle drive in 1866, and died of shock a few days later after a doctor didn’t amputate his gangrenous arm.
—Mitch Moxley, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
All of them have been broken into by raiders over the centuries, their walls smashed or lids prised off despite once being locked shut with metal clasps.
—Barry Neild, CNN Money, 23 Sep. 2025
Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 9 Feb. 2026
Vestar was born in 1988 during private equity’s first boom, the same year a brash NYC firm known as Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts took down mighty RJR Nabisco for $25 billion ($70 billion in today’s terms), back when deals were called LBOs and dealmakers were known as corporate raiders.
—Hank Tucker, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
Nor did their eyes shed tears over the burning library that raiders furnished with the ashes of seven thousand books, which the novelist Mamdouh Azzam had collected over fifty years inside his house in Suwayda.
—Literary Hub, 15 Jan. 2026
The Tofinu took refuge in the lagoons along the Bight of Benin, a core area of the slave trade, venturing forth in canoes with harpoons, javelins, and swords to fight off raiders from powerful nearby kingdoms.
—Laurent Dubois, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026
Set two-hundred years after atomic armageddon, residents of Vault-Tec’s network of luxury fallout habitats begin to explore the radioactive territory outside their shelters and discover a nightmarish world of militant factions, irradiated creatures, vicious raiders, and feral monsters.
—Jeff Spry, Space.com, 16 Dec. 2025
No disrespect to Purnell, who perfectly calibrated Lucy’s intrinsic hopefulness in the first season and slowly begins to curdle it this go-round as Lucy spends more time among ghouls, raiders, cannibals, and various other feuding factions.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
Its namesake, cattleman Oliver Loving, was shot by a band of raiders during a cattle drive in 1866, and died of shock a few days later after a doctor didn’t amputate his gangrenous arm.
—Mitch Moxley, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
All of them have been broken into by raiders over the centuries, their walls smashed or lids prised off despite once being locked shut with metal clasps.
—Barry Neild, CNN Money, 23 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for raiders
invaders
Noun
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During the two-day cold snap, Florida waived its law requiring permits to transport iguanas, allowing residents to nab the pesky invaders and bring them to the state's wildlife officers to be euthanized.—
Peter Burke,
FOXNews.com,
10 Feb. 2026
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For the Chinese Communist Party, which stakes its claim to legitimacy on defeating Japanese invaders during World War II, that would be an unforgivable outrage.—
Andy Browne,
semafor.com,
9 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Raiders.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/raiders. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
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