militant Definition
mili·tant (mil′i tənt)
adjective
- at war; fighting
- ready and willing to fight; esp., vigorous or aggressive in support or promotion of a cause
Etymology: ME < L militans, prp. of militare, to serve as a soldier < miles (gen. militis), soldier
noun
a militant person
militant Related Forms
mil′i·tancy noun
mil′i·tantly adverb
militant Synonyms
militant
modif.
militant Synonyms
militant Usage Examples
Converse of subject
kill: He was the third westerner to be killed by suspected Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia in a week.
Converse of object
- suspect: Palestinian police have arrested several militants suspected of involvement in Wednesday's bomb attack on an American diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip.
- arrest: Police said that they had already arrested 13 militants they said had been preparing to provoke Mayday violence.
- kill: Israel handed over the remains of 15 militants killed in shooting or bomb attacks against Israelis within the past two years.
- recruit: Dissent mounted in the Congress Socialists ' ranks, especially among militants recruited during the August Struggle.
Adjective modifier
- Islamic: The attacks have generally been blamed on Islamic militants.
- Palestinian: Israel said the move was intended to deter future attacks by Palestinian militants.
- suspected: Hundreds of suspected militants have been arrested in the campaign.
- Trotskyist: The Young Socialists of the Seine, who were led by Trotskyist militants, brought their support to the strike.
- Muslim: India also accuses Pakistan of clothing " pretty faced " Muslim militants in women's dresses.
- revolutionary: The few revolutionary militants who were leading the strike were doubtless a pole of regroupment for some of them.
Modifies a noun
- republicanism: There is no need for working class leadership or militant republicanism.
- Islamist: Militant Islamists active in the Iraq crisis will also be affected whatever the outcome is.
- atheist: It is not just militant atheists who doubt the historical value - mainstream Christian scholars also do.
- suffragette: Around 1908 a branch of the militant suffragettes, the WSPU, was established.
- secularism: In contemporary Europe, for instance, the anthropocentric vision takes the form of militant secularism, which actively opposes any manifestations of religiosity.
- atheism: Indeed, it seems like the supreme irony that militant atheism has managed to acquire the mentality of a religion.
Noun used with modifier
- islamist: I can give you a direct assurance that they are - or in many cases were - in no sense Islamist militants.
- union: Trade union militants were hit hardest by the defeats of the Thatcher years.
- wing: And there is still a large number of left wing militants around the country, and people with left wing ideals.

