provocateur
Americannoun
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a person who provokes trouble, causes dissension, or the like; agitator.
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(italics) agent provocateur.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of provocateur
1915–20; < French < Latin prōvocātor challenger, appellant, equivalent to provocā ( re ) to provoke + -tor -tor
Explanation
A provocateur is a person who deliberately does things to provoke a specific reaction, argument, or change. For example, in art or cinema, a provocateur might create shocking works to challenge social norms. In police work, provocateur is short for agent provocateur, meaning "a person hired to make trouble." The provocateur could be an undercover police officer trying to catch a known criminal in the act of committing a crime so that officers can swoop in and make an arrest. At home, a provocateur is that family member who deliberately starts a heated debate at the dinner table every Thanksgiving. A political provocateur may try to discredit the opposing side by provoking someone into saying or doing something controversial.
Vocabulary lists containing provocateur
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:
Philips is one of India's best-known - and most polarising - doctors online: admired by supporters as a fearless champion of evidence-based medicine, reviled by critics as an attention-seeking provocateur.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
An opinion poll last week showed One Nation, for decades a fringe group led by provocateur Pauline Hanson, had become the country's most popular party.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Duchamp’s Readymades, serially reproduced, appear throughout MoMA’s retrospective—the first in the U.S. since 1973—which works strenuously to dispel any suspicion that he was a one-trick provocateur.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
In concert, she’s powerful, hardly a princess of perfection but gorgeously garish, a fun and funny powerhouse provocateur, dripping in costumes, onstage audience members and sweat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
Coleman is a classicist who studied at Oxford and a former consultant for McKinsey & Company who clearly enjoys his role as a provocateur.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
The prime minister added that he had instructed Israeli authorities to "deport the provocateurs as soon as possible".
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
It also said the flotilla was serving "professional provocateurs".
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
So do Internet provocateurs, represented here by Ann Coulter, pretty much playing herself and proving that it isn’t an act.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2025
But it rewards the attention of a committed voyeur, which all proper cineastes and many of our best provocateurs are anyway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2023
Their role was to act as agents provocateurs, and they would attempt to push us around, take our food, and inhibit any political discussions we tried to have.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
