Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.
- n. An opponent of progress or liberalism; an extreme conservative.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to reaction in general; consisting of or characterized by reflex or reciprocal action; reactive.
- Specifically Of or pertaining to political reaction; favoring reaction: as, reactionary principles or movements.
- n. A promoter of reaction; specifically, one who attempts to check, undo, or reverse political action.
Wiktionary
- adj. Opposed to change; urging a return to a previous state.
- adj. Very conservative.
- n. One who is opposed to change.
- n. One who is very conservative.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Being, causing, or favoring reaction.
- n. One who favors reaction, or seeks to undo political progress or revolution.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. extremely conservative
- n. an extreme conservative; an opponent of progress or liberalism
Etymologies
- From French réactionnaire. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in a person favoring a reaction to the revolution. First known usage in English in a translation of Lazare Carnot's letter on the Conspiracy of the 18th Fructidor published in London, 1799. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Consequently, I believe the term reactionary NOW applies in its strictest sense to prog-wacks.”
“So if a reactionary is a believer in order, a progressive is — a believer in disorder?”
“I've been much criticized of late," laments the senator over a lavish dinner with lobbyists, "by irresponsible people of course, for what they term my reactionary association with big business.”
““They throw around the term reactionary so lightly.”
“Being reactionary is disprefered in so far as moralistic reaction short-circuits ethical critique (see “The Absence of the Abject” post).”
“The men who wrote it knew all too well what the unlimited reach of a monarch could do, and they knew all too well what it was like to live in reactionary times; the American Revolution was still a vivid and recent memory at the time it was crafted.”
“It doesn't matter though; she'll forever be in reactionary mode based upon her own poor judgment.”
“Many of the Americans who sought solace for their frustration and fear in reactionary political movements were drawn from the old lower-middle classes, "men and women clinging precariously to hard-won middle-class lifestyles; people with valued but imperiled stakes in their local communities.”
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood
“Ahad Ha'amoratzim: you call reactionary, ranting 'asking'?”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reactionary’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 212 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Hitch Words
Words from the lexicon of Christopher Hitchens
propinquity, fratricide, factitious, vitiate, sectarianism, ostensible, atavistic, sephardic, doyen, palpable, encephalitic, fastidious and 188 more...
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List for Test Day
heresy, reversion, predilection, pedagogy, disparate, virtuous, refurbish, efficaciously, provenance, heckler, amorphous, epitome and 236 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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fountainhead
perversion, reproachful, mitigate, proletariat, cadaverous, gallantry, jauntily, malevolent, eludicate, sonorous, solicitude, dubious and 97 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for reactionary.
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