revolt

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French révolter, from Italian rivoltare, itself either from ri- with the verb voltare, or possibly from a Vulgar Latin *revoltāre < *revolvitāre, for *revolūtāre, frequentative of Latin revolvō (“roll back”) (through its past participle revolūtus).

Compare typologically Russian переворо́т (perevorót) (akin to верте́ть (vertétʹ).

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: rĭ-vōltʹ; IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvoʊlt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvəʊlt/, /ɹɪˈvɒlt/
• Rhymes: -əʊlt, -ɒlt
• Hyphenation: re‧volt

Verb

revolt (third-person singular simple present revolts, present participle revolting, simple past and past participle revolted)

1. (intransitive) To rebel, particularly against authority.

   The farmers had to revolt against the government to get what they deserved.

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 18, column 1:

     Our diſcontented Counties doe reuolt

2. (transitive) To repel greatly.

   Your brother revolts me!

   • 1796–1797, Edmund Burke, “Letters on a Regicide Peace, Continued from Vol. VIII. Letter IV. To the Earl Fitzwilliam.”, in [Walker King], editor, The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, new edition, volume IX, London: […] [R. Gilbert] for C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], published 1826, →OCLC, page 118:

     I shall be told, that this abominable medley is made rather to revolt young and ingenuous minds.

   • 1870, John Morley, Condorcet (published in the Fortnightly Review

     To derive delight from what inflicts pain on any sentient creature revolted his conscience and offended his reason.

3. (intransitive) To be disgusted, shocked, or grossly offended; hence, to feel nausea; used with at.

   The stomach revolts at such food; his nature revolts at cruelty.

4. To cause to turn back; to roll or drive back; to put to flight.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 567:

     The foring clouds into fad fhowres y molt; / So to her yold the flames, and did their force reuolt.

5. To turn away; to abandon or reject something; specifically, to turn away, or shrink, with abhorrence.
   • 1673, John Milton, “[Sonnet] XII. On the Same [Tetrachordon].”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], →OCLC, page 57:

     And ſtill revolt when truth would ſet them free.

   • 1886, John Morley, The Life of Turgot:

     His clear intelligence revolted from the dominant sophisms of that time.

6. (card games) to perform a revolution in Tycoon, reversing the card hierarchy

   Antonym: counterrevolt

Conjugation

Conjugation of revolt

infinitive	(to) revolt
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	revolt	revolted
2nd-person singular	revolt, revoltest†	revolted, revoltedst†
3rd-person singular	revolts, revolteth†	revolted
plural	revolt
subjunctive	revolt	revolted
imperative	revolt	—
participles	revolting	revolted

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

• revolter

Translations

to rebel — see also rebel,‎ rise up

• Arabic: ثَارَ (ṯāra), تَمَرَّدَ (tamarrada)
• Catalan: revoltar (ca)
• Danish: oprøre
• Dutch: rebelleren (nl), in opstand komen
• Egyptian: (sbj)
• Finnish: kapinoida (fi)
• French: se révolter (fr)
• German: revoltieren (de)
• Greek: επαναστατώ (el) (epanastató)
• Hindi: विद्रोह करना (vidroh karnā)
• Hittite: 𒀀𒊏𒀀𒄑𒍣 (a-ra-a-iz-zi)
• Indonesian: berbalik (id)
• Malay: berontak
• Māori: whana
• Neapolitan: s'arrevotà
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: revoltar (pt)
• Romanian: revolta (ro)
• Russian: восстава́ть (ru) impf (vosstavátʹ), восста́ть (ru) pf (vosstátʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: èirich
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бу́нити, побу́нити

  Latin: búniti (sh), pobúniti (sh)

• Spanish: alzarse en protesta, revolverse (es)
• Swedish: revoltera (sv), göra uppror, avfalla (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: قالقمق (kalkmak), آیاقلانمق (ayaklanmak)

• Welsh: gwrthryfela (cy), terfysgu (cy)

to greatly repel

• Bulgarian: отвраща́вам (bg) impf (otvraštávam)
• Catalan: revoltar (ca)
• Finnish: inhottaa (fi)
• French: révolter (fr)
• Ido: nauzeigar (io)

Noun

revolt (countable and uncountable, plural revolts)

1. An act of revolting.

   Synonyms: armed revolt, insurrection, rebellion

   — It's a revolt?
   — No, Sire, it's a revolution...

   • 2021 January 13, Steven Poole, “'Insurrection': how an old word for an old thing was Trumped”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 20 January 2021:

     The first recorded use of “insurrection” in English, indeed, is in parliamentary papers describing the armed revolt led by Jack Cade in 1450, who marched on London to protest against the corruption of Henry VI’s government. […] Thinking more metaphorically, his American contemporary James Russell Lowell wrote: “It is not the insurrections of ignorance that are dangerous, but the revolts of intelligence.” Had he lived to the year 2021, he might have changed his mind.

Derived terms

• December revolt
• minirevolt
• revolter

Translations

act of revolting

• Albanian: kryengritje (sq) f, revoltë (sq) f
• Arabic: عِصْيَان m (ʕiṣyān), تَمَرُّد m (tamarrud)
• Armenian: ապստամբութիւն (apstambutʻiwn)
• Azerbaijani: üsyan (az)
• Bashkir: ихтилал (ixtilal), баш күтәреү (baş kütərew), күтәрелеш (kütəreleş)
• Basque: matxinada, errebolta
• Belarusian: паўста́нне n (pawstánnje), бунт m (bunt)
• Breton: ravolt m
• Bulgarian: въста́ние (bg) n (văstánie), бунт (bg) m (bunt)
• Catalan: revolta (ca) f, rebel·lió (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 暴亂 / 暴乱 (zh) (bàoluàn), 反亂 / 反乱 (zh) (fǎnluàn)

• Czech: vzpoura f
• Danish: oprør n, opstand c
• Dutch: opstand (nl) f, rebellie (nl) f, revolte (nl) f
• Egyptian: (sbjw)
• Esperanto: ribelo
• Estonian: mäss, ülestõus
• Finnish: kapina (fi)
• French: révolte (fr) f
• Galician: revolta f
• Georgian: აღშფოთება (aɣšpoteba), აჯანყება (aǯanq̇eba)
• German: Revolte (de) f
• Greek: στάση (el) f (stási)

  Ancient Greek: ἀποστασία f (apostasía)

• Hebrew: הִתְקוֹמְמוּת f (hitkomemut), מֶרֶד (he) m (méred)
• Hindi: विद्रोह (hi) m (vidroh)
• Hungarian: felkelés (hu), lázadás (hu)
• Indonesian: pemberontakan (id)
• Italian: rivolta (it) f
• Japanese: 反乱 (ja) (はんらん, hanran)
• Kazakh: көтеріліс (köterılıs)
• Korean: 반란(叛亂) (ko) (ballan), 반발(反撥) (ko) (banbal), 폭동(暴動) (ko) (pokdong)
• Kyrgyz: көтөрүлүш (ky) (kötörülüş), козголоң (kozgoloŋ)
• Latvian: sacelšanās m pl
• Lithuanian: sukilimas (lt) m, maištas m, pasibjaurėjimas m
• Macedonian: револт f (revolt), востание n (vostanie)
• Māori: whananga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: opprør (no) n

  Nynorsk: opprør n

• Persian: شورش (fa) (šureš), طغیان (fa) (toġyân), بلوا (fa) (balvâ)
• Polish: bunt (pl) m, rewolta (pl) f
• Portuguese: revolta (pt) f, rebelião (pt) f
• Romanian: revoltă (ro) f
• Russian: восста́ние (ru) n (vosstánije), бунт (ru) m (bunt), мяте́ж (ru) m (mjatéž)
• Scottish Gaelic: èirigh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: рѐволт m, по̏буна f

  Latin: rèvolt (sh) m, pȍbuna (sh) f

• Slovak: vzbura f
• Slovene: upor (sl) m
• Spanish: rebelión (es) f, revuelta (es) f
• Swedish: revolt (sv) c, uppror (sv) n
• Tajik: шуриш (šuriš), туғён (tuġyon), балво (balvo)
• Thai: การกบฏ (th) (gaan-gà-bòt)
• Turkish: başkaldırma (tr), isyan (tr)
• Ukrainian: повста́ння n (povstánnja), за́колот (uk) (zákolot), бунт (uk) m (bunt)
• Uzbek: qoʻzgʻolon (uz)
• Vietnamese: cuộc nổi dậy, cuộc khởi nghĩa
• Welsh: gwrthdrafod m, gwrthryfel m, terfysg (cy) m

Related terms

• revolting

Anagrams

• volter

Catalan

Etymology

From older revoldre, from Latin revolūtus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [rəˈβo̞l]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [rəˈvɔlt]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [rəˈβɔl]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [reˈvɔlt]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [reˈβɔl]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

revolt m (plural revolts)

1. turn

   Synonym: girada

2. curve, bend

   Synonym: gir

Derived terms

• revoltillar
• revoltim
• revoltó

Adjective

revolt (feminine revolta, masculine plural revolts, feminine plural revoltes)

1. disordered, agitated

   Synonym: desordenat

Further reading

• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “revolt”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)
• “revolt”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “revolt”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from French révolte.

Noun

rèvolt m inan (Cyrillic spelling рѐволт)

1. revolt

Declension

This entry needs an inflection-table template.