antifa
/ænˈtiːfə/
antifa is the alternative letter-case form of Antifa.
antifa is the clipping of antifascist.
antifa is the clipping of antifascism.
Meaning of antifascist
Adjective
antifascist (comparative more antifascist, superlative most antifascist)
- Opposed to the tenets of fascism; antifa.
- Subsequently, the GDR’s antifascist tradition would be diluted, distorted, and refashioned into an ahistorical national origins myth in which the citizens of East Germany were officially proclaimed the “victors of history,” but where little space remained for the real and complicated history, not...2017 May, Loren Balhorn, “The Lost History of Antifa”, in Jacobin Magazine
Meaning of antifascism
Noun
antifascism (usually uncountable, plural antifascisms)
- Opposition to fascism
- In fostering a politics that linked antifascism abroad with antiracism at home, the “radical left” (including but not restricted to Communists) thus “redefined the debate over white supremacy and hastened its end.”2008 February 10, Maurice Isserman, “Pathfinders”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020
- Synonyms:
- antifa
Proper noun capitalized: Antifa
Antifa
- A decentralized, radical political movement that opposes fascism.
- Similarly, Antifa organized local defense units that fought off Nazi assaults and factory and land-estate committees that blocked further wage cuts and other infringements.1985, Andreas Dorpalen, German History in Marxist Perspective: The East German Approach, Wayne State University Press, page 385
- The active Communist participation in the leadership of the Antifa committees made them vulnerable to "red scare" propaganda, especially from the much more conservative city government.1996, Rebecca L. Boehling, A Question of Priorities: Democratic Reforms and Economic Recovery in Postwar Germany : Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart Under U.S. Occupation, 1945-1949, Berghahn Books...
- Black bloc groups that fight fascist or far-right groups in public, usually anarchist, socialist, or communist groups.
Noun capitalized: Antifa
Antifa (plural Antifas)
- A local instance of this movement.
- The stakes were high and the issues far-reaching; it is hardly astonishing that in cities like Bremen and Leipzig Antifas jumped the gun, exercised administrative powers without waiting for military government and continued them.1949, Political Science Quarterly, volume 64, Academy of Political Science
- Both the pattern and participation and the internal structure of the Antifas recalled the French underground.1981, James D. Wilkinson, The Intellectual Resistance in Europe, Harvard University Press, page 136
- A member of an anti-fascist group.
Forms of antifa
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more antifa |
| superlative | most antifa |
| Noun | |
| plural | antifas |
| plural | Antifas |
Origin of antifa
Borrowed from German Antifa, originally an abbreviation for Antifaschistische Aktion, a wing of the Communist Party of Germany founded in 1932. Also a clipping of antifascism or antifascist.
Words formed from antifa
Words that rhyme with antifa
Questions about antifa
- What does antifa mean?
- Antifa means a decentralized, radical political movement that opposes fascism.
- What is antifa the alternative letter-case form of?
- Antifa is the alternative letter-case form of Antifa.
- What part of speech is antifa?
- Antifa can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce antifa?
- Antifa is pronounced /ænˈtiːfə/.
Words near antifa in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: antifa (page history and authors); Antifa (page history and authors); antifascist (page history and authors); antifascism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-antifa.wav.
Cite this entry: “antifa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antifa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.