anarchist
Americannoun
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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
- anarchistic adjective
- nonanarchistic adjective
- pseudoanarchistic adjective
- semianarchist noun
- semianarchistic adjective
- unanarchistic adjective
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.
As Mikhail Bakunin, a 19th-century anarchist, observed, “it’s painful to live in Russia if you value the truth.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026
However, in context, it is clear that Alter is criticizing a strain of anarchist activism in the United States.
From Salon • Sep. 23, 2025
“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
Right, punk rock music was influential in bringing anarchist ideas to Brazil, but the beginning was pretty cynical.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2023
There’s surely an entry on the anarchist playwright Alfred Jarry, who once gave Picasso a Browning pistol—the gun favored by the anarchists.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
