dissident
/ˈdɪsɪd(ə)nt
/noun
A person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state: a dissident who had been jailed by a military regime...
- Even Chinese democracy activists and dissidents take the borders of China as an indivisible given.
- The refugees are trapped between Guinean government forces and those of rebel Guinean dissidents.
- Only in the metropolis can gays, Jews, women, dissidents, democrats and oddballs feel safe.
Synonyms
dissenter, objector, protester, disputant;
freethinker, nonconformist, independent thinker;
rebel, revolutionary, recusant, renegade;
subversive, agitator, insurgent, insurrectionist, insurrectionary, mutineer
informal refusenik
adjective
In opposition to official policy: the measure was supported by dissident Tories...
- Over the subsequent three decades, opposition parties and dissident voices were more in evidence.
- At the small assemblies, dissident workers were prevented from speaking against the plan.
- It championed democratic dissident movements behind the Iron Curtain as a challenge to Soviet power.
Synonyms
dissentient, dissenting, disagreeing;
opposing, opposed, opposition, objecting, protesting, complaining;
rebellious, rebelling, revolutionary, recusant;
nonconformist, non-compliant
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'differing in opinion or character'): from Latin dissident- 'sitting apart, disagreeing', from dis- 'apart' + sedere 'sit'.
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