rebellion
Americannoun
-
rebellions
plural
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open, organized, and armed resistance to one's government or ruler.
-
resistance to or defiance of any authority, control, or tradition.
- Synonyms:
- disobedience, insubordination
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the act of rebelling.
noun
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organized resistance or opposition to a government or other authority
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dissent from an accepted moral code or convention of behaviour, dress, etc
Usage
What does rebellion mean? A rebellion is an attempt to overthrow a government—an organized revolution. It can also refer to a revolt against another form of authority. More generally, rebellion can refer to an action or behavior that resists or defies rules or norms or otherwise challenges the status quo. The verb rebel means to engage in rebellion. As a noun, rebel can refer to a revolutionary or to a person who is defiant or disobedient. Such a defiant person can be called rebellious, and the noun rebelliousness refers to such behavior. Rebellion can also refer to this, as in I went through a phase of teenage rebellion. Example: The rebellion is being led by a coalition of factions that all have the same goal—to topple the regime.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rebellion
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English rebellioun, from Old French, from Latin rebelliōn-, stem of rebelliō; equivalent to rebel + -ion
Explanation
A rebellion is when you rise up and fight those in power, usually on a large scale. In "Star Wars," the good guys fighting the powerful, evil empire were known as the rebellion. If you know that a rebel is someone who fights authority, then you won’t be surprised that a rebellion is something similar. Rebellions can be wars, particularly wars for independence from the ruling government, but many rebellions never come to armed conflict. Most of the time they're wars of words, or even just small-scale rule-breaking that is supposed to make a larger point. Students might wear shorts to school, for example, as a rebellion against the dress code.
Vocabulary lists containing rebellion
Animal Farm
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May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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List 5
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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.
See Examples For:
That stylistic rebellion extended to Arnold as well.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Yet he appreciates there is another side to the photographs, and to the rebellion they record.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Some corporate governance experts attribute the rebellion Noel Tata is facing to a staggered succession by his half-brother Ratan Tata, who died in 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
They were J.Crew socks: tiny lobsters, reindeer, tasteful little acts of rebellion occurring mostly below the trouser cuff.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
No less an authority than Oliver Cromwell is said to have remarked that there would have been no Irish rebellion ‘if there had been an Earl of Cork in every province’.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Before, the two forces had been allies, working together to crush rebellions in Darfur, but also pro-democracy movements that sprung up after the ouster of Sudanese dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Weapons from the former Yugoslavia helped drive the Libyan civil wars after 2011, later fueling rebellions in Mali and across the Sahel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
But as the civilian government battled rebellions and internal divisions, it handed power to the military in 1958 for a two-year caretaker spell.
From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025
After no rebellions took place, the judicial system put on the brakes, the public turned against Palmer and the scare went dormant.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2025
I calm myself by thinking that rebellions don’t happen in a day.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
