anarchic

Also an·ar·chi·cal

[an-ahr-kik]

adjective

1. of, like, or tending to anarchy.

2. advocating anarchy.

3. not regulated by law; lawless.

   Anarchic bands pillaged the countryside.

Other Word Forms

• anarchically adverb
• hyperanarchic adjective
• nonanarchic adjective
• nonanarchical adjective
• nonanarchically adverb
• proanarchic adjective
• unanarchic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of anarchic¹

First recorded in 1780–90; either from French anarchique or anarch(y) + -ic

Example Sentences

Shot on a handheld digital camera, the film applies an anarchic home-movie aesthetic to a superbly performed, discomfitingly comic drama of darkness within a family.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The vibe is exuberant and anarchic and very much in tempo with the joy-craving fatalism of today.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

A product of an anarchic group called the Cacophony Society, SantaCon has come to be seen by many as an annoying pub crawl.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Just look at the anarchic energy of The Spice Girls' Wannabe, or the seven-part pop Frankenstein that was Girls Aloud's Biology and ask yourself, "Could Westlife have pulled that off?"

Read more on BBC

Due to its liberating and anarchic nature, there is a consensus that Burning Man symbolizes the legacy of the socially libertarian spirit of the 1960s counterculture.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• bitter 
• chaotic 
• fierce 
• lawless 
• quarrelsome 
• raucous 
• rough 
• rowdy 
• unruly 
• violent