REVOLUTIONARY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does revolutionary mean? 

• REVOLUTIONARY (noun)
  The noun REVOLUTIONARY has 1 sense:

1. a radical supporter of political or social revolution

  Familiarity information: REVOLUTIONARY used as a noun is very rare.

• REVOLUTIONARY (adjective)
  The adjective REVOLUTIONARY has 4 senses:

1. markedly new or introducing radical change

2. of or relating to or characteristic or causing an axial or orbital turn

3. relating to or having the nature of a revolution

4. advocating or engaged in revolution

  Familiarity information: REVOLUTIONARY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REVOLUTIONARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A radical supporter of political or social revolution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

revolutionary; revolutionist; subversive; subverter

Hypernyms ("revolutionary" is a kind of...):

radical (a person who has radical ideas or opinions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "revolutionary"):

dynamiter; dynamitist (a person who uses dynamite in a revolutionary cause)

Girondin; Girondist (a member of the moderate republican party that was in power during the French Revolution; the Girondists were overthrown by their more radical rivals the Jacobins)

freedom fighter; insurgent; insurrectionist; rebel (a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority (especially in the hope of improving conditions))

counter-revolutionist; counterrevolutionary; counterrevolutionist (a revolutionary whose aim is to reverse the changes introduced by an earlier revolution)

Instance hyponyms:

Chou En-lai; Zhou En-lai (Chinese revolutionary and communist leader (1898-1976))

Emiliano Zapata; Zapata (Mexican revolutionary who led a revolt for agrarian reforms (1879-1919))

Doroteo Arango; Francisco Villa; Pancho Villa; Villa (Mexican revolutionary leader (1877-1923))

Leon Trotsky; Lev Davidovich Bronstein; Trotsky (Russian revolutionary and Communist theorist who helped Lenin and built up the army; he was ousted from the Communist Party by Stalin and eventually assassinated in Mexico (1879-1940))

Maxmillien Marie Isidore de Robespierre; Robespierre (French revolutionary; leader of the Jacobins and architect of the Reign of Terror; was himself executed in a coup d'etat (1758-1794))

Comte de Mirabeau; Honore-Gabriel Victor Riqueti; Mirabeau (French revolutionary who was prominent in the early days of the French Revolution (1749-1791))

Karl Marx; Marx (founder of modern communism; wrote the Communist Manifesto with Engels in 1848; wrote Das Kapital in 1867 (1818-1883))

Jose Julian Marti; Marti (Cuban poet and revolutionary who fought for Cuban independence from Spain (1853-1895))

Jean Paul Marat; Marat (French revolutionary leader (born in Switzerland) who was a leader in overthrowing the Girondists and was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday (1743-1793))

Mao; Mao Tsetung; Mao Zedong (Chinese communist leader (1893-1976))

Che Guevara; Ernesto Guevara; Guevara (an Argentine revolutionary leader who was Fidel Castro's chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution; active in other Latin American countries; was captured and executed by the Bolivian army (1928-1967))

Danton; Georges Jacques Danton (French revolutionary leader who stormed the Paris bastille and who supported the execution of Louis XVI but was guillotined by Robespierre for his opposition to the Reign of Terror (1759-1794))

Charlotte Corday; Corday; Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armont (French revolutionary heroine (a Girondist) who assassinated Marat (1768-1793))

Derivation:

revolutionary (advocating or engaged in revolution)

• REVOLUTIONARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Markedly new or introducing radical change

Synonyms:

radical; revolutionary

Context example:

radical political views

Similar:

new (not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered)

Derivation:

revolution (a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to or characteristic or causing an axial or orbital turn

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

revolutionary; rotatory

Pertainym:

revolution (a single complete turn (axial or orbital))

Derivation:

revolution (a single complete turn (axial or orbital))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Relating to or having the nature of a revolution

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

the Revolutionary era

Pertainym:

revolution (the overthrow of a government by those who are governed)

Derivation:

revolution (the overthrow of a government by those who are governed)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Advocating or engaged in revolution

Context example:

a revolutionary junta

Antonym:

counterrevolutionary (marked by opposition or antipathy to revolution)

Derivation:

revolutionary (a radical supporter of political or social revolution)

 Context examples 

This discovery could have a revolutionary effect on agriculture and the health of the planet.

(Bacteria Used to Create Fertilizer Out of Thin Air, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Was this to constitute a final proof where the matters in question were of the most revolutionary and incredible character?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The revolutionary tech discoveries of the next few decades, the ones that will change daily life, may come from new materials so small they make nanomaterials look like behemoths.

(Picoscience and a plethora of new materials, National Science Foundation)

I'll try not to, but I'm always possessed to burst out with some particularly blunt speech or revolutionary sentiment before her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Although it might sound revolutionary, there is still a lot to do before this becomes reality.

(Will We Soon Drive on ‘Grassoline’?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

She was too firmly intrenched in the established to have any sympathy with revolutionary ideas.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mercifully unconscious of what she had done, Jo sat with her nose in the air, and a revolutionary aspect which was anything but inviting.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He learned, also, that he spoke nightly to the workmen in the City Hall Park, and that among the anarchists and agitators that there inflamed the minds of the people he drew the largest audiences and made the most revolutionary speeches.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)