SUBVERTED Synonyms: 75 Similar and Opposite Words

subverted

verb

past tense of subvert

as in corrupted

to lower in character, dignity, or quality by insisting that she pay me for helping her, she subverted my noble desire to do a good deed without reward

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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 subverted What could be a stock campus ice-queen role is subverted throughout the season, through the empathy for the character that courses through her performance. — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 27 July 2026 Ireland sought to slow down the match but New Zealand subverted that tactic, forcing turnovers and kicking only sparingly. — ABC News, 18 July 2026 The Sedition Act of 1918, which subverted the Bill of Rights, imposed penalties for anti-government expression. — Steve H. Hanke, Fortune, 1 July 2026 Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith’s screenplay is littered with exaggerated stereotypes just waiting to be boisterously subverted. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 29 June 2026 One day after Zendaya subverted her usual high-fashion fare by wearing a $35 T-shirt from eBay, the 29-year-old actress dipped into a different type of archive on June 25. — Juliana Ukiomogbe, InStyle, 25 June 2026 But Raman — whose husband is veteran 30 Rock writer and producer Vali Chandrasekaran — has quietly subverted her showy target in a way befitting that series. — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 6 June 2026 Last year, the struggle ended—or, at least, got subverted. — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 26 May 2026 New York Tendaberry, released in the fall of 1969, mostly consists of Nyro alone at the piano, delivering songs that eschewed and subverted most of the characteristics that had won her attention and adoration throughout the preceding decade. — Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork, 24 May 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for subverted

Verb

Most of the other relationships in the movie are hopelessly corrupted or poisoned in some way, as Letty moves between an unloving mother and a vengeful former lover, and others whose closeness is a weapon to be feared.

— Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 28 July 2026
The unsightly mushroom could have corrupted her maids’ morals, or even their health.

— Leah Hudson, Popular Science, 9 July 2026

Definition of corrupted

Verb

The filing argued the sequence of testing was critical because Othram's single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP, testing requires DNA that has not already been depleted or degraded through prior analysis.

— Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 31 July 2026
Global conflict has already degraded the collaborative atmosphere at CERN, Llewellyn Smith said.

— Lisa Song, CNN Money, 28 July 2026

Definition of degraded

Verb

Burger’s appointment, therefore, was concerning to criminal defense attorneys and civil rights activists, who feared that the Warren Court’s landmark decisions would be weakened or overturned.

— Quinn Yeargain, The Conversation, 11 Aug. 2026
Business in the greater Tokyo area was almost back to normal Wednesday after a tropical storm weakened to a depression and left Japan, with transportation operating normally and power restored to most homes.

— ABC News, ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026

Definition of weakened

Verb

More important to Bernstein is what that lust reveals about her characters’ deepest needs, specifically how their need to care and be cared for can be as easily perverted as any other form of desire.

— David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 9 July 2026
Georgia Bernstein’s unsettling directorial debut focuses on how warped and perverted those desires become when they’re taken to their insatiable extremes.

— Randy Myers, Mercury News, 8 July 2026

Definition of perverted

Verb

Doctors admitted him to the hospital, but his condition only deteriorated.

— Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 12 Aug. 2026
In the provincial capital Pontianak, schools suspended in-person classes after air quality deteriorated to unhealthy levels and health officials reported a rise in respiratory illnesses.

— ABC News, ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026

Definition of deteriorated

Verb

One of the children suffered fatal sharp-force injuries, while investigators believe the other three children were poisoned.

— Christina Coulter, PEOPLE, 3 Aug. 2026
Kenya has previously recorded incidents of elephants being poisoned as a result of poaching and human-wildlife conflict.

— CBS News, CBS News, 29 July 2026

Definition of poisoned

Verb

Most of the hospitals are taken over by gangs or have been destroyed, and … the economy’s not good.

— Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Money, 9 Aug. 2026
Two grandparents and their 3-year-old grandson were killed after multiple Russian drones destroyed their home in the Brovary district of Kyiv region, northeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Saturday.

— ABC News, ABC News, 8 Aug. 2026

Definition of destroyed

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“Subverted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subverted. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of subverted

verb

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