revisionist

American

[ri-vizh-uh-nist] / rɪˈvɪʒ ə nɪst /

noun

an advocate of revision, especially of some political or religious doctrine.
a reviser.
any advocate of doctrines, theories, or practices that depart from established authority or doctrine.

adjective

of or relating to revisionists or revisionism.
attempting to reevaluate and restate the past based on newly acquired standards.

Other Word Forms

antirevisionist noun

Etymology

Origin of revisionist

First recorded in 1860–65; revision + -ist

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.

“It’s a terrible idea to move swiftly and not have the really complicated and challenging process that is required to actually work towards more than a superficial pretense of revisionist history,” Gudis said.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2026

The memorials warned that fake content was also being created "specifically to dilute historical facts, shift victim and perpetrator roles, or spread revisionist narratives".

From Barron's • Jan. 27, 2026

Taking his cue from Richard Hofstadter, an influential 20th-century American historian and Roosevelt revisionist, Mr. Brown hews largely to contrary opinions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025

All of these characters — even the more objectively callous ones like Father, a retired energy industry magnate writing a revisionist biography to absolve his culpability — teem with empathy.

From Salon • Dec. 7, 2024

In her enormously self-serving and revisionist autobiography, she asserted that she agreed to make the film only after Hitler promised to keep Goebbels at bay.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023