as in rebellious
given to resisting authority or another's control
today's rebel chefs feel free to ignore the dictates of classic French cuisine
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in insurgent
a person who rises up against authority
the rebel would not submit peacefully, even after he was captured
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to revolt
to rise up against established authority
the colonists rebelled in the wake of an onslaught of abuses
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rebel
Alan Bradley, Space.com, 7 Oct. 2025
Aside from games like volleyball and dominoes, Gach says some children stage fake ambushes on one another while pretending to be government forces or rebel fighters.
—Juliana Kim, NPR, 5 Oct. 2025
Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 28 Oct. 2025
Hegseth likened the Colombian rebel group to the al Qaeda terror group founded by Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
—Greg Norman , Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
David Weigel, semafor.com, 22 Oct. 2025
Loosely inspired by real-life events, the film chronicled the tale of an undercover detective infiltraitng a coal mining community to expose a group of Irish-American miners rebelling against the mine owners.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rebel
Adjective
While the Terrans struggle to suppress a rebel faction incensed by humanity's alliance with the alien Vasudans, they're caught unawares by the return of an existential threat to the peace-loving species of the galaxy.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 7 Oct. 2025
Aside from games like volleyball and dominoes, Gach says some children stage fake ambushes on one another while pretending to be government forces or rebel fighters.
—Juliana Kim, NPR, 5 Oct. 2025
Noun
This self-reliant rebel ideology is what makes skate culture iconic and connects the sport with punk music.
—Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 28 Oct. 2025
Hegseth likened the Colombian rebel group to the al Qaeda terror group founded by Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
—Greg Norman , Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
Verb
Americans rebelled against a king, then applied that same thinking to abolish slavery, then dismantle segregation.
—David Weigel, semafor.com, 22 Oct. 2025
Loosely inspired by real-life events, the film chronicled the tale of an undercover detective infiltraitng a coal mining community to expose a group of Irish-American miners rebelling against the mine owners.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rebel
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rebel
Adjective
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As for the Banks sisters, Ashley (Akira Akbar) works through a rebellious phase during her freshman year as Hilary (Coco Jones) goes on a journey of self-exploration.—
Natalie Oganesyan,
Deadline,
3 Nov. 2025
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To be clear, there is no sense that Rondón and Ugás are defending the old guard or suggesting that a docile, starving population pinioned under the grip of a dictatorship is big-picture preferable to a rebellious insurgency.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
31 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has successfully recruited prized political heavyweights in key battlegrounds, but left-wing insurgents are threatening to dash his plans to create a competitive midterm map for Democrats.—
Ramsey Touchberry,
The Washington Examiner,
26 Oct. 2025
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Al-Shabaab, an Islamist insurgent group that has battled the central government for two decades in southern and central Somalia, is gaining ground.—
Omar S Mahmood,
Time,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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This political propaganda is revolting, totally disgusting and perhaps a violation of the Hatch Act.—
DP Opinion,
Denver Post,
28 Oct. 2025
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Users revolted against the change, citing lost AI friendships and romantic relationships with the earlier iteration of the bot.—
Beatrice Nolan,
Fortune,
19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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On Monday afternoon, Petro remained defiant.—
Nora Gámez Torres,
Miami Herald,
21 Oct. 2025
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This Irish American neighborhood is famous for its quirky upside-down traffic light, where green proudly sits above red—a symbol of its defiant community spirit.—
Lauren Dana Ellman,
Travel + Leisure,
19 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Most of the records on the Haitian revolution were written by people who opposed the revolutionaries.—
Julia Gaffield,
The Conversation,
15 Oct. 2025
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The Mexican actor plays revolutionaries in both season 2 of Star Wars series Andor and new movie musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
Entertainment Weekly,
11 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In 1841, John Quincy Adams stood before the Supreme Court and defended a group of enslaved captives who mutinied aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad.—
Time,
Time,
24 Sep. 2025
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In 1913, Swiss Guards mutinied for a week in response but eventually received military training as Repond wanted, Alvarez wrote in The Pope's Soldiers: A Military History of the Modern Vatican.—
Michael Loria,
USA Today,
7 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rebel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rebel. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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