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
  • Evaluating defamation claims where the report contains demonstrably false factual assertions.
    Tim Reynolds, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2025
  • However, as several independent experts interviewed by NPR note, that claim is false.
    Scott Neuman, NPR, 3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Equipment and supplies were transported to and from the site using 4x4 vehicles in what were treacherous driving conditions, per the UWFRA.
    Escher Walcott, PEOPLE, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Earlier, the company stressed that the rugged Oshkosh Defense Palletized Load System (PLS) M1075A1 excels in extreme conditions, efficiently distributing supplies and equipment in treacherous environments using demountable flat rack cargo beds or ISO containers.
    Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 5 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • This variability makes tungsten diselenide unreliable for quantum applications.
    Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Much of the country relies on petrol generators because the grid is patchy and unreliable, but unsubsidized fuel is too expensive for most.
    semafor.com, semafor.com, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Edwards says those who failed him and the disloyal agents have to be held accountable.
    Demetrius Patterson, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Youngism, the set of stereotypes and practices that discount younger workers as unreliable, lazy and disloyal, has outpaced any other type of ageism — and the economic impacts are startling.
    Jennifer Moss, Fortune, 24 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
  • 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
  • Just days before True's birth, Kardashian learned that Thompson had allegedly been unfaithful.
    Clare Fisher, PEOPLE, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Pushed to extremes While footage and photographs of starving Palestinians in Gaza have horrified audiences abroad, inside Israel they have been dismissed by many as manipulated or untrue.
    Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 5 Oct. 2025
  • Even so, the theory that nuclear families are the saving grace for Black children reigns supreme, albeit untrue.
    Meagan Jordan, Rolling Stone, 3 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Traitorous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/traitorous. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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