rebel
Americannoun
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rebels
plural
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a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of their country.
- Synonyms:
- insurgent, traitor, mutineer, insurrectionist
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a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.
verb (used without object)
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rebels,
present (3rd person singular)
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rebelled,
past participle, past
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rebel,
past participle, past
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rebelling
present participle
verb
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to resist or rise up against a government or other authority, esp by force of arms
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to dissent from an accepted moral code or convention of behaviour, dress, etc
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to show repugnance (towards)
noun
-
-
a person who rebels
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( as modifier )
a rebel soldier
a rebel leader
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-
a person who dissents from some accepted moral code or convention of behaviour, dress, etc
Usage
What does rebel mean? A rebel is a person who resists or defies rules or norms or rises up against the powers that be. In its more serious sense, a rebel is a revolutionary trying to overthrow a government. More generally, it means someone who breaks the rules, resists authority, or otherwise challenges the status quo by doing things in a nontraditional way, such as in fashion and other arts. As a noun, rebel is pronounced "REB-uhl."Rebel is also a verb meaning to resist or rise up against authority or tradition. As a verb, rebel is pronounced "ri-BELL."Example: Danielle refused to wear her uniform to school, fighting with the principle and urging the other girls to rebel against the policy as she did.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rebelsimple
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rebelssimple
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have rebelperfect
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have rebelledperfect
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has rebelperfect
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has rebelledperfect
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am rebellingprogressive
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are rebellingprogressive
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is rebellingprogressive
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have been rebellingperfect progressive
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has been rebellingperfect progressive
Past
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rebelsimple
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rebelledsimple
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had rebelperfect
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had rebelledperfect
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was rebellingprogressive
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were rebellingprogressive
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had been rebellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rebel
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English adjective rebel(e), from Old French rebelle, from Latin rebellis “renewing a war,” equivalent to re- re- + bell(um) “war” + -is adjective suffix; Middle English verb rebelle(n), from Old French rebeller and Latin rebellāre; noun derivative of the adjective
Explanation
When you rebel against your parents by dyeing your hair green and staying out without calling, you are acting in a way that questions both their authority and their rules about what is right and acceptable. A rebel is someone who fights authority. The story of a rebel often finds its way into books and movies. In the 1950s film "Rebel without a Cause," a teenager rebels against his parents. In the "Star Wars" movies, the Jedi rebel against the Empire. A rebel, whether the cause they are fighting for is just or not, is always the underdog. One pronunciation hint, rebel as a noun has the stress on the first syllable and as a verb on the second.
Vocabulary lists containing rebel
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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Fighting Words: Belli and Milit
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The American Revolution - Introductory
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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:
A man suspected of leading a dissident faction of a left-wing rebel group has been killed in a military operation in central Colombia, officials say.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Several people, including former rebel fighter Motaz al-Zaydi, told us they had resorted to eating rats.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Players are starting to mildly rebel: announcing they want fewer events, and more money at the events they do play, but it hasn’t manifested in any significant change.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Satan’s the original outlaw, right? He’s a rebel angel,” Alexandra told the outlet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
The same night that his authority was recognized by all the rebel commands, he woke up in a fright, calling for a blanket.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ali Munif, 46, has been living in a displacement camp on the outskirts of Marib city since his village was overrun by the rebels in 2021.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Last month, the Houthi rebels welcomed an Iranian plane landing in the capital Sanaa, setting off a spate of tit-for-tat attacks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Further south of Ituri there are large areas held by the M23 rebels, a powerful militia that says it has managed to contain the outbreak.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
“We root for the rebels in ‘Star Wars’ and want them to defeat Darth Vader, or we side with the Fremen in ‘Dune.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
“It still galls me that you, the least of your pathetic little band of rebels, would be the one to capture me,” she continued.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
Unlike the majority of his generational cohort, he never rebelled against the establishment that promoted it.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
One of the main reasons colonists rebelled against the crown was that they wanted more Indigenous land—they wanted to move farther west into North America, but the king was telling them no.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026
Paraguay’s national anthem starts by stating that the people of the Americas were “oppressed for three centuries” until they rebelled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Haiti became the first independent black nation in the Americas in 1804, after enslaved people rebelled against their French masters in what was then the colony of Saint-Domingue.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain.
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
Speakers promoting AI are getting booed at universities, voters are rebelling against data centers, and even AI-friendly Trump administration officials are starting to retreat as an artificial intelligence backlash gathers pace across the United States.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
When it came to creating this new government, rebelling against and pushing back against restrictions we had experienced under English common law, press freedom was seen to be essential.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026
Artists, musicians, writers, film makers and performers of all kinds are rebelling, one of the most profound forms of resistance to a repressive regime.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026
Four MPs who were suspended from the Labour Party after rebelling against welfare reforms have had their whips restored.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
By the time I’m ready to be dressed, their complaints about the difficulty of getting different products—from crabmeat to music chips to ribbons—has given me a sense of which districts might actually be rebelling.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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.
