subversive
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- countersubversive noun
- nonsubversive adjective
- nonsubversively adverb
- nonsubversiveness noun
- self-subversive adjective
- subversively adverb
- subversiveness noun
- subversivism noun
- unsubversive adjective
- unsubversively adverb
- unsubversiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of subversive
1635–45; < Latin subvers ( us ) (past participle of subvertere to subvert ) + -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Infinite choice is exhausting. People are just tired of all of it. Putting a claim down on a piece of culture is in some ways subversive and fights back against platform control,” said Saxon.
From Los Angeles Times
He was an initiator of "Inked Without Regret", a 2020 declaration seen by the court as evidence of the subversive intentions of its signatories.
From Barron's
It was only with time that I understood “Wuthering Heights” for its impact on literature — how its existence during the Victorian era was so subversive.
From Los Angeles Times
If this vapid, airless, mindless time-waster had subversive designs of being a satire about the first lady of the United States, there’s not much it would have changed.
From Los Angeles Times
These cultural products “succeed because they feel spontaneous, playful, sometimes a bit subversive,” Lee said.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
