anarchist

American  

[an-er-kist] / ˈæn ər kɪst /

noun

• anarchists
  plural

1. a person who advocates or believes in anarchy or anarchism.

2. 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.

3. a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.

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anarchist British  

/ ˈænəkɪst /

noun

1. a person who advocates the abolition of government and a social system based on voluntary cooperation

2. a person who causes disorder or upheaval

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• semianarchist
  noun
• anarchistic
  adjective
• nonanarchistic
  adjective
• pseudoanarchistic
  adjective
• semianarchistic
  adjective
• unanarchistic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• anarchists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of anarchist

First recorded in 1670–80; anarch(y) + -ist

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anarchist anarchists

She added to the informant on an encrypted messaging app that she had "picked up some anarchist literature at the social justice center" which "could have some good tips."

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

Other intellectual influences include Jean Grenier, who had taught him philosophy in Algeria, and his contemporary Simone Weil, a mystic and anarchist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 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

The writer was a self-identified anarchist whose views on racism, and the British legal system and monarchy, influenced his work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2023

Over the summer I read a biography of the anarchist Emma Goldman.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

The directors suggest Black Rock City has been visited upon by a plague of plutocrats and anarchists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

He discovered a public more concerned with Progressive Era anti-monopoly reforms that Republicans cast as anti-business, a postwar economic slump, and acts of domestic terrorism committed by anarchists.

From Slate ● Mar. 10, 2026

According to Mark Bray, a professor of history at Rutgers University, the term was picked up across Europe in the 1980s and ’90s and adopted by a broad swath of leftists, anarchists and anti-authoritarian socialists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025

Found within a kilometre of the Danish parliament, Freetown Christiania was established in 1971 when a bunch of anarchists and hippies squatted inside a vacant military base.

From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2024

Aboard the vessel were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, two of the most famous and influential of all the anarchists who had been charged with inciting revolution in America.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

• agitator
• anarch
• revolutionary