Revolutionary Meaning
/ˌɹɛvəˈluʃənɛɹi/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf or pertaining to a revolution in government; tending to, or promoting, revolution
adjOf or pertaining to something that portends of great change; overthrowing a standing mindset
Sentence Examples
The revolutionary council met to plan strategy.
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
The government was overthrown in a revolutionary coup.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new technology brought about a ____ change in how people communicate globally.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The invention was truly ____, changing the way people communicated across the entire world.
Word Origin & History
Compare French révolutionnaire; equivalent to revolution + -ary.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In 1885, one hundred and ten years after the American Declaration of Independence, a young Chinese medical doctor named Sun Yat-sen began preaching his revolutionary principles. Ten years later, in 1895, he founded in Honolulu the first Chinese revolutionary party with what then must have seemed an unbelievably ambitious aim of overthrowing the monarchical system of government which had been in continuous existence in China for forty centuries."
— 1957, Chiang Chung-cheng (Kai-shek), “Introduction”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3:
""The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face."
— 1942 March, “Notes and News: Monument to a Stillborn Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new technology brought about a ____ change in how people communicate globally.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The invention was truly ____, changing the way people communicated across the entire world.