antifa
noun
an·ti·fa an-ˈtē-fə 
ˈan-tē-ˌfä
variants or less commonly Antifa
1
: a person or group actively opposing fascism
The groups … prominently featured about 100 Christian ministers in clerical garb, angry Charlottesville residents, peace advocates, Black Lives Matter activists, and self-styled anti-fascists who call themselves "antifas" …
Peter Weber
Peter WeberAfter the war, Antifas varied in size and composition across the former Reich, now divided into four zones of occupation, and developed in interaction with the local occupying power. Loren Balhorn
Loren Balhorn2
: an anti-fascist movement
Antifa is the backlash to the backlash, a defensive response to the growing presence of right-wing extremism. Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlin antifa adjective
antifa protesters
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from German Antifa, short for antifaschistisch "anti-fascist," in Antifaschistische Aktion (multiparty front initiated by the German Communist Party in 1932 to counter Nazism) and in other collocations
First Known Use
1946, in the meaning defined at sense 1