counterrevolutionary
Americanadjective
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characteristic of or resulting from a counterrevolution.
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opposing a revolution or revolutionary government.
noun
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counterrevolutionaries
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of counterrevolutionary
First recorded in 1790–1800; counterrevolution + -ary
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:
The victims of that era include the Gaos’ father, who was detained as a counterrevolutionary and died in custody.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Historians widely interpret such violence as a counterrevolutionary response to the strength of socialist and labor movements after the First World War.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2026
For six of those years, he was persecuted as a counterrevolutionary.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2022
The charges were similarly absurd, that he had been a member of a counterrevolutionary organization and sabotaged the collective farm’s work.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2022
“Establishing counterrevolutionary ties and listening to foreign radio? It must be Fan Wen-chong who told them,” Grandma said slowly.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
In his first term, he aligned with business leaders, conservatives and even former counterrevolutionaries, and against his own former comrades.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2021
Sholokhov met Stalin in 1931 as he was dealing with critics and editors who questioned the ideological purity of the third volume, given its setting among counterrevolutionaries.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 31, 2019
In a sign of improved relations, the communist government has given permission for a new house of worship in this remote area, which was a place of exile for counterrevolutionaries after Fidel Castro took power.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 18, 2015
When a crowd petitioned to depose King Louis XVI in 1791, the red flag was flown not by the revolutionaries but by the counterrevolutionaries.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2012
Suppose some counterrevolutionaries came along in a truck and said: 'We don't need any passes?'
From Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed
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.
