dissentient

D2I1S1S1E1N1T1I1E1N1T1

noun

A dissenter.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

noundissentient (plural dissentients)

plural dissentients

  1. A dissenter.

    Naturally, the wisdom of striking to remedy grievances was questioned; but there were few dissentients from the view that the Government and B.T.C. are mishandling the human relations involved.

    1962 November, “Talking of Trains: The one-day strike”, in Modern Railways, page 291
    1 more example

    The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.

    1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC
adjectivedissentient (comparative more dissentient, superlative most dissentient)

comparative more dissentient · superlative most dissentient

  1. Dissenting; of a different opinion.

    A dissentient opinion came from the aunt.

    1914, Saki, ‘The Story-teller’, Beasts and Superbeasts, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 354
    2 more examples

    Moody and Sankey had sung their way into every dissentient chapel, and Boshy appreciated their words thoroughly, and sang them to a wrong tune incessantly.

    1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 198

    When the news spread through the warren, there was not a dissentient voice.

    1996, Richard Adams, Tales from Watership Down

    Synonyms: dissentious

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveDissenting; of a different opinion.

More synonyms by meaning

adjective(of Catholics) refusing to attend services of the Church of England

adjectivedisagreeing, especially with a majority

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latindissentiēns“dissenting”
  2. Englishdissentient

From the Latin dissentiēns (“dissenting”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

dissentient. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissentient

MLA

“dissentient.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissentient. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dissentient,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissentient.

Source: dissentient on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.