a person who separates, withdraws, or secedes, as from an established church.
an advocate of separation, especially ecclesiastical or political separation.
A separatist is someone who believes certain groups of people should live independently from the larger group. Often religious separatists form new denominations after they break off from a church. Separatists are typically members of a minority group that wishes to protect itself or its identity from the majority group. There are political separatist movements all around the world, including Catalan separatists in Spain, who believe that Catalonia should be an independent nation, and French-Canadian separatists in Quebec.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This predominantly Tuareg separatist group, created in 2024, wants independence for the territory of Azawad in northern Mali.
From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026
Such policies have manifested differently across China, with harsher tactics applied in areas seen as riven with separatist sentiment.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
The third constituency — a suburb of Montreal called Terrebonne — had been held by the separatist Bloc Québécois since 2015.
From BBC • Mar. 9, 2026
Tehran has also historically been wary of separatist sentiment among the around 10 million ethnic Azeris living in Iran.
From Barron's • Mar. 6, 2026
But like the Southern Baptists and other conservative denominations, the Assemblies gradually dropped their separatist strictures as their membership prospered and spread.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
