Instigator

//ˈɪnstɪɡeɪtə// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who intentionally instigates, incites, or starts something, especially one that creates trouble.

    "Near-synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker"

  2. 2
    a person who initiates a course of action wordnet
  3. 3
    someone who deliberately foments trouble wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
firebrandinciterinciterinitiatorinitiatortroublemaker

Example

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"Near-synonyms: see Thesaurus:troublemaker"

Etymology

From Latin īnstīgātor (“stimulator”), from īnstīgāre (present infinitive of īnstīgō (“to incite, set on, stimulate, rouse or urge”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab; to puncture; to goad”)) + -or (from -ō (suffix forming masculine agent nouns), from Proto-Indo-European *-h₃onh₂- (suffix forming nouns denoting authority or burden)); cognate with French instigateur. By surface analysis, instigate + -or.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.