reactionary

What it means

1. governmentExtremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.

   [Jeffrey] Epstein was interested in transhumanism, a theory of human perfection via technological manipulation that—like its predecessor, eugenics—is shot through with racist and reactionary ideas.

   2019 August 7, Marissa Brostoff, Noah Kulwin, “The Right Kind of Continuity”, in Jewish Currents, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2025

   2 more examples

   There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. […] If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is.

   2011 September 29, Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 25

   Within certain MAGA circles, to criticize someone for being too racist or reactionary is a betrayal, signaling an acceptance of the very liberal morality that the movement’s vanguard seeks to destroy.

   2025 November 4, Michelle Goldberg, “Nick Fuentes Is Becoming Charlie Kirk’s Successor”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2025

   Synonyms: antiprogressive, regressive · Antonyms: progressive, nonreactionary

2. chemistryOf, pertaining to, participating in, or inducing a chemical reaction.

   Psychiatry extends the theory into biology in the belief that all human behavior is nothing more than a series of reactionary chemical processes in the brain that determine pre-coded genetic responses built up from the conditioning of one’s environment.

   2013 April 11, Brandon Smith, “Are Individuals The Property Of The Collective?”, in Alt-Market, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2016

3. In reaction to; as a result of.

   The regulator noted that reduced service levels and passenger numbers helped deliver strong performance, with fewer reactionary delays.

   2020 December 16, “Network News: ORR praises Network Rail's response to pandemic”, in Rail, page 13

In a sentence

There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. […] If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is.

2011 September 29, Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 25

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Italic*wre-
2. Latinre-
3. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eǵ-
4. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éǵeti
5. Proto-Italic*agō
6. Latinagō
7. Latinreagō
8. Medieval Latinreactio
9. Frenchréaction
10. Frenchréactionnaire
11. Englishreactionary

Borrowed from French réactionnaire, equivalent to reaction + -ary. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in favoring a reaction against the revolution.