reactionary
Syllables: re·ac·tion·ary/ɹiˈækʃən(ə)ɹi/US/ɹiˈæk.ʃəˌnɛɚ.i/
reactionary adjective: extremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.
Adjective
reactionary (comparative more reactionary, superlative most reactionary)
- Extremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.
- There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. […] If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is.2011 September 29, Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 25
- [Jeffrey] Epstein was interested in transhumanism, a theory of human perfection via technological manipulation that—like its predecessor, eugenics—is shot through with racist and reactionary ideas.2019 August 7, Marissa Brostoff, Noah Kulwin, “The Right Kind of Continuity”, in Jewish Currents, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2025
- Synonyms:
- antiprogressive, regressive
- Antonyms:
- progressive, nonreactionary
- Of, pertaining to, participating in, or inducing a chemical reaction.
- Psychiatry extends the theory into biology in the belief that all human behavior is nothing more than a series of reactionary chemical processes in the brain that determine pre-coded genetic responses built up from the conditioning of one’s environment.2013 April 11, Brandon Smith, “Are Individuals The Property Of The Collective?”, in Alt-Market, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016
- In reaction to; as a result of.
- The regulator noted that reduced service levels and passenger numbers helped deliver strong performance, with fewer reactionary delays.2020 December 16, “Network News: ORR praises Network Rail's response to pandemic”, in Rail, page 13
Noun
reactionary (plural reactionaries)
- One who opposes revolution, wanting to reverse it, favoring a return to a past golden age, often used derogatorily by revolutionaires.
- Hindu reactionaries, whose conception of a well-ordered society had not moved beyond the laws of Manu, fell into line for the moment with the intellectual products of the modern Indian University.1921, Valentine Chirol, India, Old and New
- He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views.1945 September, Charles W. Morton, “Tom Paine: America's God Father”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 May 2022
- Synonyms:
- antiprogressive
reactionary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
reactionary in Hindi
- reactionary
- प्रतिक्रियावादी pratikriyāvādī, प्रतिगामी pratigāmī
- a reactionary
- प्रतिक्रियावादी pratikriyāvādī
reactionary in Tamil
- பிற்போக்காளர், பிற்போக்கான
reactionary in Marathi
- प्रतिक्रियावादी
reactionary in Urdu
- رجعت پسند
More languagesFewer languages
- reactionary in Bengali
- প্রতিক্রিয়াশীল, পরিবর্তনবিরোধী
- reactionary in Malayalam
- പ്രതിലോമമായ, പിന്തിരിപ്പനായ, പ്രാതിലോമിക, വലതുക്ഷചിന്താഗതിയുള്ള
- reactionary in Kannada
- ಮಾರೆಸಗುವ, ಎದುರಿಸುವ, ವಿರೋಧಿ, ಪ್ರಗತಿವಿರೋಧಿ
- reactionary in Gujarati
- પ્રતિક્રિયાવાદી
- reactionary in Nepali
- प्रतिक्रियावादी, प्रतिक्रियावादि
- reactionary in Pashto
- ارتجاعي
- reactionary in Arabic
- رجعي rajʕiyy
- reactionary in Persian
- ارتجاعی
- reactionary in Vietnamese
- phản động, người phản động
Examples of reactionary in a sentence
- Aspects of social conservatism that reactionary Christians and reactionary Muslims have in common explain why Western social conservatives' political opponents have sometimes called them Y'all Qaeda.
- America in the fifties also had its share of reactionary political violence.
- Similarily, the femosphere possesses intellectual mouthpieces who cloak reactionary perspectives with an intellectual and scientific façade.
Synonyms of reactionary
Antonyms
Forms of reactionary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more reactionary |
| superlative | most reactionary |
| Noun | |
| plural | reactionaries |
Origin of reactionary
Borrowed from French réactionnaire, equivalent to reaction + -ary. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in favoring a reaction against the revolution.
Words formed from reactionary
Questions about reactionary
- What does reactionary mean?
- Reactionary means extremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.
- What is reactionary in Hindi?
- Reactionary in Hindi is प्रतिक्रियावादी (pratikriyāvādī), प्रतिगामी (pratigāmī). See Reactionary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is reactionary?
- Reactionary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce reactionary?
- Reactionary is pronounced /ɹiˈækʃən(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
Words near reactionary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reactionary (page history and authors); प्रतिक्रियावादी (Hindi) (page history and authors); reactionary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reactionary (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reactionary (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reactionary (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reactionary (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); reactionary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reactionary (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); reactionary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-reactionary.wav.
Cite this entry: “reactionary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reactionary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.