reformer

[ri-fawr-mer]

noun

1. a person devoted to bringing about significant change in attitudes and practices, such as in politics or society generally or within a particular organization.

2. Church History.,  Reformer, any of the leaders of the Reformation.

Other Word Forms

• antireformer noun
• counterreformer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of reformer¹

First recorded in 1520–30; reform + -er ¹

Example Sentences

For 18th-century enlightened reformers, ethnic diversity and multiculturalism weren’t good things.

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After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, some reformers called to “build schools, smash temples.”

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She told the conference "I was a reformer at the Ministry of Justice. I will be a reformer at the Home Office too."

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Early reformers can rebuild their faculties by drawing on the remaining nonpoliticized scholars currently scattered across thousands of college campuses—as the recently founded University of Austin has done.

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Land reformers calculate that 421 individuals, corporations, asset management groups and foreign trusts own more than 40% of all the nation's rural land.

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Related Words

• agitator 
• anarchist 
• extremist 
• fanatic 
• firebrand 
• insurgent 
• leftist 
• militant 
• progressive 
• rebel 
• renegade 
• revolutionary 
• rioter www.thesaurus.com
• subversive