nonviolent
Americanadjective
-
not violent; free of violence.
-
peacefully resistant, as in response to or protest against injustice, especially on moral or philosophical grounds.
Other Word Forms
- nonviolently adverb
Etymology
Origin of nonviolent
Vocabulary lists containing nonviolent
We're not asking, we're demanding: Vocabulary from "Selma," the movie
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: non-
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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.
Referring to the Easter story of Christ's resurrection, three days after he was nailed to the cross, he said Jesus had been "entirely nonviolent" in the face of suffering.
From BBC • Apr. 5, 2026
In the following years, they built a flourishing movement fighting for farmworkers’ rights, employing marches, fasts and other nonviolent protest actions.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
Other groups are providing nonviolent civil disobedience training, for example, which organizers describe as calling attention to the injustice of the current policy.
From Salon • Feb. 13, 2026
Most of those who attended these protests were peaceful—Operation Rescue instructed recruits on what it called nonviolent civil disobedience.
From Slate • Feb. 4, 2026
Within a week, the protests, inspired by the nonviolent actions of India’s Mahatma Gandhi, spread to other cities in North Carolina, and then crossed the borders into Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
