noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of mutiny
1560–70; obsolete mutine to mutiny (< Middle French mutiner, derivative of mutin mutiny; see mutineer) + -y 3
Explanation
A mutiny is a rebellion against authority, like when sailors overthrow the captain of a ship or when a class of 8th graders refuses to dissect a frog in biology class. Mutiny comes from an old verb, mutine, which means "revolt," and a mutiny is still like a revolt. It can be a group of people, like in the famous Mutiny on the Bounty in 1789 when the crew of a British Royal Navy ship kicked the captain out so they could stay in Tahiti. (Totally worth it.) Mutiny also means "to refuse the order of the person in authority," so it doesn't always take place at sea or in the military, it can happen in a classroom and be every teacher's nightmare!
Vocabulary lists containing mutiny
The Cay
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Christopher Columbus' Diary: The First Voyage
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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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.
Statham also jokes that audiences "will be sick of me by the end of the year" as he stars in several films being released in 2026 including Mutiny and a sequel to The Beekeeper.
From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026
The first census of British India was conducted in 1871-72, 14 years after the shamefully bloody Sepoy Mutiny, and counted some 200 million Indian subjects.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025
It was headed to the Seattle suburb of Renton from Friday Harbor, a popular tourist destination in the San Juan Islands, when it abruptly fell into Mutiny Bay and sank.
From Washington Times • Oct. 6, 2023
While this “Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” is unlikely to be remembered with Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” or “Sorcerer,” it offers a bracing demonstration of the director’s sensibility and craft.
From New York Times • Oct. 5, 2023
In Mutiny on the Bounty, when people died at sea, they were wrapped in white sheets and thrown overboard with millstones around their necks so that the corpses wouldn’t float.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
