A dissenter is someone who disagrees with commonly held opinions or beliefs. Except for one dissenter (your brother who dislikes amusement parks), everyone in your family is looking forward to going to Disneyland next summer. If the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision that's supported by eight of the Justices, the one Justice who disagrees with the ruling is a dissenter. This word is also used to mean "protester," or someone who stands up and takes action against a law or policy. In the 17th century, dissenter was used for someone who disagreed with a religious belief or doctrine.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“John Marshall Harlan, the great dissenter, who dissented in Wong Kim Ark and later gave a bunch of lectures, he posed the question about the sojourners,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
In January, he was the lone dissenter in an 8-1 decision to hold the policy rate at 0.75%, instead proposing a hike to 1.0%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Otherwise, the dissenter could thwart the majority’s will by dragging their feet to run out the clock.
From Slate ● Nov. 20, 2025
He was the lone dissenter who preferred no rate cut given the residual strength of the economy.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 1, 2025
The occasional dissenter accuses me of betraying my fellow officers and being a rat, asserting that “what goes on in corrections should stay in corrections.”
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Said Nancy: “He was known as ‘Abe the Dissenter.’
From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2017
Justice Ginsburg, left behind, is being called the Great Dissenter.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2015
Meanwhile in an interview with Firedoglake’s The Dissenter this week, the ex-CIA agent said, “I am wearing my conviction as a badge of honor”: I am proud that I stood up to our government.
From Salon ● Jan. 25, 2013
September 1, 2010, Go to Blog » The Dissenter, Justice John Paul Stevens Three decades ago, he was appointed to the Supreme Court as a judicial conservative and moderate Republican.
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2010
The little Dissenter is every inch a Campbell of Argyll.
From Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant by Holt, Mathew Joseph
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.
