as in rebel
someone who tries to overthrow or undermine a governing power
They were outted as subversives and exiled from the country.
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as in violent
seeking to overthrow or undermine a governing power
A subversive organization determined to unseat a leader who they believed operated outside the law.
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for subversive
Noun
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Yemen's Houthi rebels, aligned with Iran, have continued to launch attacks in the region despite the truce, including previous drone and missile strikes targeting Israel.—
Amanda Castro
Hannah Parry,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 June 2025 -
Young-il manages to separate from the group and betrays the rebels, killing two of them and faking his own death.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
23 June 2025
Adjective
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Swart said another giveaway is the hotel accommodations that are arranged for violent rioters.—
Stepheny Price,
FOXNews.com,
21 June 2025
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The appellate panel found Trump likely satisfied the legal threshold under Section 10 of the U.S. Code, and sided with the administration’s argument that local law enforcement had failed to contain violent attacks on federal agents and property.—
Daniel Hunt,
Sacbee.com,
20 June 2025
Noun
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Widely viewed as the most powerful of a broad array of insurgent groups active in northern Syria, HTS withstood regular attacks by the Syrian military, ultimately turning the tide last December.—
Tom O'Connor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
14 May 2025
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In recent years, the PKK has been limited to isolated attacks inside Turkey as the Turkish military, backed by armed drones, has pushed its insurgents increasingly across the mountainous border into Iraq.—
Suzan Fraser,
Los Angeles Times,
12 May 2025
Adjective
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Amid the broader sociopolitical tensions and rising revolutionary fervor, the Group synthesized the concerns of a vast swathe of artists by interpreting the abstraction of Western modernism through aesthetics drawn from Islamic and Mesopotamian cultures into various styles.—
Chadd Scott,
Forbes.com,
20 June 2025
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They should all be arrested — beginning with their leader, that radical revolutionary Samuel Adams, and also including every one of his Sons of Liberty and Boston Tea Party cohorts.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
19 June 2025
Noun
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In 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two working-class Italian anarchists charged with murder, were sent to the electric chair in Massachusetts, setting off protests around the world.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
24 June 2025
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While for many nineteenth-century anarchists, human nature was understood in scientific terms, Tolstoy understood it religiously.—
Ben Woollard,
JSTOR Daily,
18 June 2025
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“Subversive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subversive. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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