Word.ws English Dictionary

revanchist

UK/ɹɪˈvæn(t)ʃɪst//ɹəˈvɑnt͡ʃɪst/

revanchist noun: a revanchist person; occasionally, anyone seeking vengeance.

Noun

revanchist (plural revanchists)

  1. A revanchist person; occasionally, anyone seeking vengeance.
    • The next day, newspapers across the political spectrum will express varying degrees of outrage at the president's discourtesy, ignorance, and lack of style; one will accuse him of being a revanchist.1997, Tony Hendra, “Old soldiers”, in Harper's Magazine, volume 295, number 1766, page 53
    • Mr. Murphy tracks shifts in Justice Scalia's approach and what differentiates it from those of other textual revanchists, whether Justice Clarence Thomas or the legal scholar Robert Bork.2014 July 2, Jeff Shesol, “Rightward Bound: 'Uncertain Justice' and 'Scalia'”, in The New York Times (book review; International New York Times version: The Court: Rightward bound: Uncertain Justice....

Adjective

revanchist (not comparable)

  1. Seeking revenge or otherwise advocating retaliation, especially against a nation which has previously defeated and humiliated the revanchist party in war. Originally referred to the French indignation over losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War.
    • No longer did young German tourists in France or Holland have to pretend that they were Swedes, and no longer did the governments of Eastern Europe blame all their problems on the “revanchist West Germans”.1974 March 20, “The Legacy of a 'Good German'”, in Time
    • What remains is an elegant brief history of the modern conservative movement, as unsparing in its critique of liberal hubris as of revanchist resentment.2009 September 29, Jackson Lears, “The Waxing and Waning of America's Political Right”, in The New York Times, retrieved 05 Oct 2009

Forms of revanchist

pluralrevanchists

Origin of revanchist

From French revanchiste, from revanche (“revenge”) + -ist.

Questions about revanchist

What does revanchist mean?
Revanchist means a revanchist person; occasionally, anyone seeking vengeance.
What part of speech is revanchist?
Revanchist can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce revanchist?
Revanchist is pronounced /ɹɪˈvæn(t)ʃɪst/ (UK).
What is the plural of revanchist?
The plural of revanchist is revanchists.

Words near revanchist in the dictionary

  1. revanche
  2. revanches
  3. revanchism
  4. revanchisme
  5. revanchisms
  6. revanchist
  7. revanchists
  8. revani
  9. revaporize
  10. revaporized
  11. revaporizes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: revanchist (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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