Silovik
//ˈsiːləvɪk// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A member of the Russian military, law enforcement, or intelligence services (the KGB or FSB), or a politician with a background in such services.
"[T]he so-called siloviki have installed themselves deep inside the country’s boss class – something that did not happen to anything like the same degree during the Cold War."
Example
More examples"[T]he so-called siloviki have installed themselves deep inside the country’s boss class – something that did not happen to anything like the same degree during the Cold War."
Etymology
From Russian силови́к (silovík), from си́ла (síla, “force”) + adjective suffix -ов (-ov, “-able/-ible”) + agent suffix -ик (-ik, “-ist, -er”), adjective: силово́й (silovój, “of or related to force”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.