Meaning & use
Wingnuts
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Plural of "wingnut": a nut with two flattened wing-like projections that allow it to be tightened or loosened by hand without tools; informally, people regarded as holding extreme or eccentric views, especially in politics.
See it in a sentence
He used two wingnuts to secure the panel so it could be removed without a wrench.
The pundit dismissed his critics as a handful of online wingnuts.
A note on using this word
The informal, political sense emerged in American usage in the late twentieth century as a dismissive term for ideological extremists.
Words with a similar meaning
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Another way to use it
2. noun
Informally, people regarded as holding extreme, eccentric, or irrational political views.
Local wingnuts flooded the town hall meeting with conspiracy theories.
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