revolutionary

adj. pertaining to a revolution; radically new or different, innovative

n. one who attempts to overthrow a government or authority, one who takes part in a revolution

A revolutionary, when used as a noun, is a person who either advocates or actively engages in some kind of revolution. The term is usually applied to political revolutionaries or  social revolutionaries, and less frequently used to revolutionary scientists, inventors, and artists. In the political context, the term "revolutionary" is often used in contrast to the term reformist. While a revolutionary is someone who supports abrupt change, a reformist is someone who supports more gradual change. The word "recalcitrant" is relavitely synonymous. When used as an adjective, revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. Political revolutionaries may be classified in two ways:According to the goals of the revolution they propose. Usually, these goals are part of a certain ideology. In theory, each ideology could generate its own brand of revolutionaries. In practice, most political revolutionaries have been either liberals, nationalists, socialists, communists or anarchists.According to the methods they propose to use. This divides revolutionaries in two broad groups: Those who advocate a violent revolution, and those who are pacifists. Perhaps the best known examples of these two types of revolutionaries are Che Guevara and Mahatma Gandhi, respectively.
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Noun
1. a radical supporter of political or social revolution
(synonym) revolutionist, subversive, subverter
(hypernym) radical
(hyponym) counterrevolutionist, counter-revolutionist, counterrevolutionary
Adjective
1. markedly new or introducing radical change; "a revolutionary discovery"; "radical political views"
(synonym) radical
(similar) new
2. relating to or having the nature of a revolution; "revolutionary wars"; "the Revolutionary era"
(pertainym) revolution
3. advocating or engaged in revolution; "revolutionary pamphlets"; "a revolutionary junta"
(antonym) counterrevolutionary

(n.)
A revolutionist.
  

(a.)
Of or pertaining to a revolution in government; tending to, or promoting, revolution; as, revolutionary war; revolutionary measures; revolutionary agitators.
  

Synonyms and related words:
Bolshevik, Bolshevist, Bolshie, Carbonarist, Carbonaro, Castroist, Castroite, Charley, Communist, Cong, Fabian, Fenian, Guevarist, Jacobin, Leninist, Mafioso, Maoist, Marxist, Mau-Mau, Puritan, Red, Red Republican, Roundhead, Sinn Feiner, Trotskyist, Trotskyite, VC, Vietcong, Wobbly, Yankee, Yankee Doodle, Young Turk, agitator, altered, anarch, anarchist, anarchistic, anarcho-syndicalist, antagonistic, antipathetic, authentic, avant-garde, beast, beldam, berserk, berserker, better, bomber, bonnet rouge, brawler, breakaway, brute, cataclysmic, catastrophic, changeable, changed, clashing, conflicting, contradicting, contradictory, converted, corrective, counteractant, counteracting, counteractive, countervailing, counterworking, cranky, creative, criminal syndicalist, crotchety, degenerate, demon, deviant, devil, different, disorderly, dissident, divergent, dragon, emendatory, extreme, extreme left-winger, extremist, extremistic, factious, fanatic, fiend, fire-eater, firebrand, firsthand, fresh, frondeur, fury, goon, gorilla, gradualistic, gunsel, hardnose, hell-raiser, hellcat, hellhound, hellion, holy terror, hood, hoodlum, hostile, hothead, hotspur, imaginative, improved, incendiary, inimical, innovative, insubordinate, insurgent, insurrectionary, insurrectionist, insurrecto, killer, left-wing extremist, lunatic fringe, mad dog, madcap, malcontent, maverick, meliorist, melioristic, metamorphosed, metastasized, mild radical, mildly radical, modified, monster, mugger, mutant, mutineer, mutineering, mutinous, new, nihilist, nihilistic, nonconformist, novel, obstreperous, opposing, oppositional, oppugnant, original, parlor Bolshevik, parlor pink, perverse, pink, pinko, progressionist, progressist, progressive, progressivist, qualified, rabid, radical, rampant, rapist, reactionary, rebel, rebellious, rebuilt, recalcitrant, red, reformational, reformative, reformatory, reformed, reformer, reformist, reformistic, renewed, renitent, repugnant, resistant, revisional, revisionist, revisory, revived, revolter, revolutional, revolutionary junta, revolutioner, revolutionist, revolutionizer, revulsionary, revulsive, rioter, riotous, sans-culotte, sans-culottist, savage, seditionary, seditious, she-wolf, spitfire, subversive, sweeping, syndicalist, termagant, terror, terrorist, tiger, tigress, tough, tough guy, traitor, traitorous, transformed, transilient, translated, transmuted, treasonable, turbulent, ugly customer, ultra, ultraconservative, ultraist, ultraistic, unbridled, underived, unique, unmitigated, unruly, utopian, utopist, violent, virago, vixen, wild, wild beast, witch, wolf, worse, yippie