republican
adjective
of, relating to, or of the nature of a republic.
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republican
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Republican
Republicanadjectiveof, belonging to, or relating to a Republican Party
republican
American
[ri-puhb-li-kuhn]
/ rɪˈpʌb lɪ kən /
adjective
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of, relating to, or of the nature of a republic.
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favoring a republic.
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fitting or appropriate for the citizen of a republic.
a very republican notion.
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(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Republican Party.
noun
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republicans
plural
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a person who favors a republican form of government.
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(initial capital letter) a member of the Republican Party.
republican
1
British
/ rɪˈpʌblɪkən /
adjective
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of, resembling, or relating to a republic
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supporting or advocating a republic
noun
Republican
2
British
/ rɪˈpʌblɪkən /
adjective
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of, belonging to, or relating to a Republican Party
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of, belonging to, or relating to the Irish Republican Army
noun
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a member or supporter of a Republican Party
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a member or supporter of the Irish Republican Army
Republican
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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antirepublicanadjective
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half-republicanadjective
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nonrepublicanadjective
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prerepublicanadjective
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prorepublicanadjective
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pseudorepublicanadjective
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semirepublicanadjective
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unrepublicanadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of republican
First recorded in 1685–95, republican is from the French word républicain, Middle French. See republic, -an
Explanation
The adjective republican describes a government made up of representatives who are elected by the citizens. If you live in the United States, you’re part of a republican system of government. In a republican government, citizens have a lot of power — their vote determines who is running the government. The word republican has a noun and an adjective form. The noun is for a person who supports that style of government, and the adjective describes something with those characteristics. But if you see republican with a capital letter “r” — Republican — then that refers to a member of the Republican Party.
Vocabulary lists containing republican
Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Vocabulary from the speech
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Chapter 3, Sections 1–2
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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:
Mark Joseph Stern: This idea of republican virtue, lowercase r, civic virtue, the Framers were obsessed with it.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
He rejoiced that “slavery has reached the limits of expansion” and that “the fate of the experiment of republican government” was no longer in danger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The vehicle was stopped during an operation targeting dissident republican activities on Wednesday but further details are just emerging.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
And as Wood explains in his great book, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” these ideas would spread and unleash the republican spirit of free men and women who built America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
By resigning voluntarily, he was declaring that his deepest allegiances, like those of his critics, were thoroughly republican.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Teirab, a former Marine and a Harvard Law graduate who’d run unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican, responded with a blunt reality check.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
At 6 feet 3 and 236 pounds, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is, like more than two-thirds of Americans, overweight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
During a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said she and Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, were calling on Congress to “scrap the cap” on payroll taxes.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hoekstra, a relentless defender of President Donald Trump and a former Republican congressman from Michigan, has had a volatile tenure since arriving in Ottawa in April 2025.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
The Republican leadership assigned him to the Military Affairs Committee.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
The term "dissident republicans" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
That leaves many Irish republicans in an unexpected position.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
And finding an elected President who could unite Scotland England Wales and Northern Ireland would, I suspect, be a good deal harder than some republicans think.
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2025
Militant Irish republicans had been paying close attention to Carson’s tactics — which anticipated Mao Zedong’s maxim about the source of political power — and would eagerly emulate his example in the years ahead.
From Salon ● Oct. 19, 2024
The agents proposed it, but Brantzen refused, to the great satisfaction of the principal republicans.
From The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume 7. by Various
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.
