anarchist
Americannoun
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anarchists
plural
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a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed.
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a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.
noun
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a person who advocates the abolition of government and a social system based on voluntary cooperation
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a person who causes disorder or upheaval
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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semianarchistnoun
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anarchisticadjective
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nonanarchisticadjective
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pseudoanarchisticadjective
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semianarchisticadjective
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unanarchisticadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of anarchist
Explanation
Should you ever decide to form a club for anarchists, you might want to keep this in mind: Running for club president will make you unpopular, since anarchists prefer a stateless society and distrust ruling powers. When the Sex Pistols released "Anarchy in the UK" in 1976, they clashed with Margaret Thatcher's ideal of conservative England. Translated from the Greek, by way of Middle Latin, anarchy means "without a leader," and that's what an anarchist is all about. Given that anarchists reject authority, it's not surprising that there are many types of anarchism, ranging from those that promote the perfect liberty of the individual to those that endorse communist or socialist ideas.
Vocabulary lists containing anarchist
Play by the Rules: Arch
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"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, Part Eight
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Life Is So Good
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Other intellectual influences include Jean Grenier, who had taught him philosophy in Algeria, and his contemporary Simone Weil, a mystic and anarchist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
“Unrest” is colder still, a documentary-style rewind to a watch factory in 1870s Switzerland whose anarchist employees agitated for a better future that we know isn’t going to happen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
“I feel like if I raise those concerns, they want to put a tinfoil hat on me and they want to say I’m an anarchist or an insurrectionist,” Crye said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
"Artist, iconoclast, anarchist, punk, hippie, rebel and romantic. Jamie leaves behind a beloved daughter Rowan a granddaughter Rose, and an enormous legacy."
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2023
Dr. Talc saw again Mr. Reilly with his massive muffler and that awful girl anarchist with the valise who traveled around with Mr. Reilly and littered the campus with leaflets.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
The directors suggest Black Rock City has been visited upon by a plague of plutocrats and anarchists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
He discovered a public more concerned with Progressive Era anti-monopoly reforms that Republicans cast as anti-business, a postwar economic slump, and acts of domestic terrorism committed by anarchists.
From Slate ● Mar. 10, 2026
Naturally, a lot of it was focused on immigrants, hundreds of whom were deported under suspicion of being anarchists.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
According to Mark Bray, a professor of history at Rutgers University, the term was picked up across Europe in the 1980s and ’90s and adopted by a broad swath of leftists, anarchists and anti-authoritarian socialists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025
December 21: The United States deports 249 people that it has accused of being anarchists.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
