Insubordinate

adj, noun

adj, noun ·5 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who defies authority.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Rebellious or defiant to authority; contumacious.

    "I remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy conduct, and when I saw where it had brought me […] I felt ashamed to look him in the face."

Adjective
  1. 1
    disposed to or engaged in defiance of established authority wordnet
  2. 2
    not submissive to authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
rebelliouscontumaciousdefiantdisobedientmutinousunruly

Example

More examples

"Why are you so insubordinate to your boss?"

Etymology

From in- + subordinate, on model of French insubordonné.

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