Meaning & use
rebellion
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
An organized, often armed, attempt to overthrow a government or ruler.
Grammar: Countable for a particular uprising (the 1916 rebellion), uncountable in general: rebellion spread.
Patterns
- rebellion against someone
- lead a rebellion
The rebellion against the king began in the northern provinces.
Soldiers crushed the rebellion within a month.
Historians still debate what caused the rebellion.
noununcountable
Refusal to accept rules or authority, such as that of parents or a school.
Grammar: Often used for personal or teenage defiance: a rebellion against rules.
Patterns
- rebellion against something
- in rebellion
Her purple hair was a small act of rebellion against her strict school.
Teenage rebellion is a normal stage for many families.
The students were in open rebellion over the new dress code.
Word forms
| plural | rebellions |
|---|
Common combinations
- armed rebellion
- An armed rebellion shook the region.
- lead a rebellion
- She led a rebellion against the factory owners.
- crush a rebellion
- The army crushed the rebellion swiftly.
- teenage rebellion
- His loud music was just teenage rebellion.
- open rebellion
- The staff were in open rebellion over the pay cuts.
Synonyms and how they differ
- uprising
- Uprising stresses the rising up of the people at one moment, whereas rebellion can be longer and more organized.
- revolt
- Revolt is similar but suggests a sudden outbreak, and it is often used for a smaller group.
- revolution
- Revolution means a rebellion that succeeds in changing the whole system, which rebellion does not necessarily do.
- insurrection
- Insurrection is a formal and legal word for violent resistance to a government.
Opposites
Word family
- rebel noun
- a person who fights against or defies authority
- rebel verb
- to resist or fight authority
- rebellious adjective
- refusing to obey; defiant
- rebelliously adverb
- in a defiant way
- rebelliousness noun
- the quality of being defiant
Commonly confused: rebellion or revolution?
rebellion vs revolution
A revolution actually overturns the system, while a rebellion is the attempt, which may fail.
Practice
The farmers' ___ against the new tax was crushed after three weeks.
Choose one answer.
Rebellion means organized resistance to authority, and it can be crushed. The other nouns do not fit against the new tax.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rebellion”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.