reign of terror
reign of terror noun: a brutal period of political violence and intimidation in the wake of a popular revolution.
Noun
reign of terror (plural reigns of terror)
- A brutal period of political violence and intimidation in the wake of a popular revolution.
- A period defined by tyranny and violation of rights without accountability for the party responsible.
Proper noun capitalized: Reign of Terror
the Reign of Terror
- The period of the French Revolution between 1793 and 1794, marked by political violence, including massacres and public executions by guillotine of over a thousand French citizens accused of bearing reactionary sentiments or treason against the French First Republic.
Forms of reign of terror
| plural | reigns of terror |
|---|
Origin of reign of terror
From the Reign of Terror that took place during the French Revolution.
Named for the violence of the period, when thousands or people were massacred or executed through the guillotine by the Committee of Public Safety under Maximilien Robespierre.
Questions about reign of terror
- What does reign of terror mean?
- Reign of terror means a brutal period of political violence and intimidation in the wake of a popular revolution.
- What part of speech is reign of terror?
- Reign of terror can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of reign of terror?
- The plural of reign of terror is reigns of terror.
Words near reign of terror in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reign of terror (page history and authors); Reign of Terror (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.
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Cite this entry: “reign of terror.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reign_of_terror. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.