Vigilantism

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The activities of a vigilante; acting outside of legal authority, often violently, to punish or avenge a crime, right a perceived wrong, etc. countable, uncountable

    "Mr Shapiro also criticised the way Israel governs in the occupied lands, saying “too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes unchecked,” he said."

  2. 2
    the actions of a vigilance committee in trying to enforce the laws wordnet

Example

More examples

"Mr Shapiro also criticised the way Israel governs in the occupied lands, saying “too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes unchecked,” he said."

Etymology

From vigilante + -ism.

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