Revanchist

//ɹəˈvɑnt͡ʃɪst// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A revanchist person; occasionally, anyone seeking vengeance.

    "The next day, newspapers across the political spectrum will express varying degrees of outrage at the president's discourtesy, ignorance, and lack of style; one will accuse him of being a revanchist."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Seeking revenge or otherwise advocating retaliation, especially against a nation which has previously defeated and humiliated the revanchist party in war. Originally referred to the French indignation over losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War. not-comparable

    "No longer did young German tourists in France or Holland have to pretend that they were Swedes, and no longer did the governments of Eastern Europe blame all their problems on the “revanchist West Germans”."

Synonyms

All synonyms
furiesimplacableirreconcilablenemesispunitiverancorous

Example

More examples

"The revanchist rhetoric is fueling nationalist movements."

Etymology

From French revanchiste, from revanche (“revenge”) + -ist.

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