dissident

[dis-i-duhnt]

noun

1. a person who dissents.

adjective

1. disagreeing or dissenting, as in opinion or attitude.

   a ban on dissident magazines.

dissident

/ ˈdɪsɪdənt /

adjective

1. disagreeing; dissenting

noun

1. a person who disagrees, esp one who disagrees with the government

Other Word Forms

• dissidently adverb
• antidissident noun
• nondissident adjective
• dissidence noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dissident¹

1525–35; < Latin dissident- (stem of dissidēns, present participle of dissidēre to sit apart), equivalent to dis- dis- ¹ + -sid- (combining form of sed- repair ¹ ) + -ent- -ent

Word History and Origins

Origin of dissident¹

C16: from Latin dissidēre to be remote from, from _dis- ¹ + sedēre to sit

Example Sentences

Mr. Freedland focuses on a group of dissidents who were not “the usual suspects.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The son of a German soldier in Hitler's Nazi army has defended Pinochet, who overthrew a democratically elected socialist president in 1973 and oversaw a regime that killed thousands of dissidents.

Read more on Barron's

But it’s also easy to notice Farsi’s ingrained cynicism about the state of things, having once been imprisoned as a teenage dissident during the years following her country’s Islamic Revolution, now in exile.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sánchez said that the camp belonged to members of a dissident group led by a commander known by the alias of Iván Mordisco.

Read more on BBC

Instead, as a right-wing authoritarian leader, he’s killed opponents, thrown dissidents in jail, eliminated an independent media in Russia and imposed a religious, anti-LGBTQ+, misogynistic agenda on its society.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• protester www.thesaurus.com
• rebel 
• separatist