Synonym Chooser

How is the word traitorous different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of traitorous are disloyal, faithless, false, perfidious, and treacherous. While all these words mean "untrue to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance," traitorous implies either actual treason or a serious betrayal of trust.

traitorous acts punishable by death

Where would disloyal be a reasonable alternative to traitorous?

The words disloyal and traitorous can be used in similar contexts, but disloyal implies a lack of complete faithfulness to a friend, cause, leader, or country.

disloyal to their country

When could faithless be used to replace traitorous?

The words faithless and traitorous are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, faithless applies to any failure to keep a promise or pledge or any breach of allegiance or loyalty.

faithless allies

When is it sensible to use false instead of traitorous?

While in some cases nearly identical to traitorous, false stresses the fact of failing to be true in any manner ranging from fickleness to cold treachery.

betrayed by false friends

How do perfidious and faithless relate to one another, in the sense of traitorous?

Perfidious adds to faithless the implication of an incapacity for fidelity or reliability.

a perfidious double-crosser

In what contexts can treacherous take the place of traitorous?

Although the words treacherous and traitorous have much in common, treacherous implies readiness to betray trust or confidence.

a treacherous adviser

Example Sentences

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 traitorous But what will their first move as a traitorous duo be? Tom Smyth, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2025 The blame for this terrifying scenario, McCarthy declared, rested with traitorous federal employees, who had sold their country out and had to be purged from its service. Made By History, TIME, 9 Feb. 2025 Guinevere, usually relegated to the thankless role of traitorous wife, acts here as Arthur’s beloved confidante. Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post, 16 July 2024 Foreign military interventions can change victims from being viewed as a nuisance into being seen as powerful and traitorous enemies, potentially capable of exacting revenge, seizing power, or breaking away from the state. Benjamin A. Valentino, Foreign Affairs, 17 Oct. 2011 See All Example Sentences for traitorous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for traitorous
Adjective
  • Several residents who work in the Georgia King Village area weighed in on the incident, including Harriette Guity, who told News12 that false reports based on AI could stretch first responders thin.
    Kimberlee Speakman, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Archaeologists concluded the structure was actually a false tomb, or a cenotaph, a type of burial monument erected to honor a deceased person buried elsewhere.
    Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Meanwhile, Prince Harry and members of the House of Saud have opted to circumvent the potentially treacherous waters of the Southern Ocean, altogether.
    Brad Japhe, HollywoodReporter, 25 Oct. 2025
  • In addition to some light-hearted banter between Thia and Dek, the trailer gives viewers a look at the treacherous journey ahead of them.
    Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Cheaper options or knock-offs tend to come with flimsy sockets, buzzing ballasts, or unreliable switches, which can make rooms look cheap or dated far sooner than expected and even create fire hazards.
    Lauren Bengtson, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Oct. 2025
  • More than a year post-merger, Six Flags still operates over 10 different apps, and even basic transactions like purchasing a season pass on the website have been unreliable, so modernizing and streamlining this technology could go a long way.
    Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • That was not a popular position in 2022 and 2024, when progressives strained to convince voters that the groups attacking them for being disloyal to the party or to Joe Biden were not trustworthy.
    David Weigel, semafor.com, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Edwards says those who failed him and the disloyal agents have to be held accountable.
    Demetrius Patterson, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Her Ashley is the movie’s fourth and fifth wheel, dismissed as both a perfidious troublemaker and a New Age airhead—a life coach in need of a wife coach.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
  • This perfidious situation, unintentional as its creation may have been, was strongly critiqued as far back as 1983 by Jonathan Crush and Paul Wellings in an article in The Journal of Modern African Studies.
    The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 15 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Spouses, in this gritty Philadelphia suburb, are mostly faithless, absent or dead.
    Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025
  • In 2016, a record number of faithless votes were cast.
    Robert Alexander and Anna Dawley, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Both men had allegedly been unfaithful.
    Madison E. Goldberg, PEOPLE, 7 Oct. 2025
  • There’s a sociological connection between some things that anti-liberals say and some things that certain liberals say, and that’s because certain liberals were unfaithful to their liberalism.
    Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • These claims are not only untrue, they are being weaponized to damage my reputation and distract from the truth.
    Christina Dugan Ramirez , Tracy Wright, FOXNews.com, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Many locals thought the radio man’s criticisms were patently untrue.
    Ian O'Connor, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Traitorous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/traitorous. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

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