noun ·4 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A philosophy that rejects the use of violence, and instead seeks to bring about change through peaceful responses even to violent acts. uncountable, usually

   "From this theological perspective, the spectrum of violences has to give way to a spectrum of nonviolences."

2. 2
   peaceful resistance to a government by fasting or refusing to cooperate wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

passive resistancea wise passivenessabnegationabstinencecalmcalmness

Antonyms

All antonyms

violence

Example

More examples

"Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of nonviolence, was born in 1869."

Etymology

From non- + violence.

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