revolutionary1 adjectiverevolutionary2 noun
revolutionaryrev‧o‧lu‧tion‧a‧ry1 /ˌrevəˈluːʃənəri◂ $ -ʃəneri◂/ ●○○ AWL adjective 
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- revolutionary technology for producing cheap, pollution-free energy
- Einstein's revolutionary theories made people look at the universe in a completely new way.
- I was very involved in revolutionary activity then.
- My father taught me several revolutionary songs.
- The new treatment for cancer is considered revolutionary.
- When revolutionary forces marched into Havana, Castro and Che Guevara took control of the army.
- Women have made revolutionary changes in their roles in the past 25 years.
- At all events, it is thanks to them that the revolutionary humanism of 1789 still lives on.
- Elsewhere in the county Quakerism emerged in the 1650s to be fairly firmly suppressed by a gentry worried about its revolutionary tendencies.
- Nevertheless, Picasso's bronze Head is in many ways a revolutionary work.
- Opposition to the party establishment was created in the form of revolutionary committees and communes.
- Several rival revolutionary armies were challenging the central government and each other.
- The Council's use of the term is therefore revolutionary.
- The strategy developed by the revolutionary populists reflected the same mixture of heroic struggle for the peasantry's cause and utopian illusions.
THESAURUS
· a new sports centre· a new edition of the book· an entirely new theory of time and space
completely new: · a brand new car· The house looks brand new.
made, produced etc a short time ago: · recent research into brain chemistry
[only before noun] the most recent: · Have you seen his latest film?· the latest fashions from Paris
different from earlier things of the same kind because of using new methods, equipment, or designs: · modern technology· modern farming methods· a modern kitchen
new and completely different from what other people have done or thought of before, especially in a way that seems interesting: · The play is highly original.· His style is completely original.
fresh ideas, evidence, or ways of doing things are new and different, and are used instead of previous ones: · We need a fresh approach to the problem.· They want young people with fresh ideas.· Police think they may have found some fresh evidence that links him to the murder.
new and different in a surprising and unusual way – used especially about a suggestion, experience, or way of doing something: · The club have come up with a novel way of raising cash.· The King was passionately in love, which was a novel experience for him.
completely new and showing a lot of imagination – used especially about a design or way of doing something: · an attractive website with an innovative design· They came up with an innovative approach to the problem.
completely new in a way that has a very big effect – used especially about an idea, method, or invention: · a revolutionary treatment for breast cancer· His theories were considered to be revolutionary at the time.
[only before noun] used about something that is new and modern but which you disapprove of: · My grandfather hated all this newfangled technology.
Longman Language Activatornew ideas or ways of doing things new ideas or ways of doing things that did not exist before or had not been thought of before: · Does anyone have any new ideas?new ways/methods of doing something: · The hospital is doing a lot of research into new ways of treating asthma.· It's vital that we find new methods of producing and conserving energy.
completely different from anything that has been thought of before: original idea/design/style: · My job is to think up creative and original advertising ideascompletely original: · Woolf's writing was completely original - nothing like it had ever been done before.· a jazz musician with a completely original stylehighly original: · I was impressed by the highly original design of the house.
a revolutionary idea, method, or invention is completely different from anything that existed before, and is likely to bring important changes or improvements: · Einstein's revolutionary theories made people look at the universe in a completely new way.· revolutionary technology for producing cheap, pollution-free energy· The new treatment for cancer is considered revolutionary.
an innovative design, idea, plan etc is new, different and better than those that existed before, and shows a lot of imagination: · The city has introduced an innovative system of traffic control.· When it was first introduced, the electric car was described as one of the ten most innovative products of the year.highly innovative: · The idea for the programme 'Big Brother' was highly innovative.
something such as a new idea, method, or system that has never been thought of before, especially one that is better than previous ones: · The kids-only Internet service is a great innovation which will help parents control their children's access to the Internet.technological innovations: · All the latest technological innovations of cinema were used to create the special effects.communication/software etc innovations: · What exactly will the impact of all these communication innovations be?
a fresh idea, approach etc is new and different from previous ones, and may help to deal with a problem: · We need a fresh approach to this problem.· The negotiations won't make any progress unless one of the sides puts forward fresh proposals.· Toy manufacturers are always on the lookout for fresh ideas.
a novel idea, method etc is new and interesting because it is unexpected and different from what has existed before: · Scientists have come up with a novel way of catching fish.· Tonight's TV news will be presented in a novel format.· I spent six months living in a monastery in northern India, which was a novel experience.
something that is interesting because it is new and unusual, especially when this makes people think it is not very serious: · Retail analysts say that electronic shopping remains a novelty for most peopleit is a novelty for somebody to do something: · It was a novelty for people at college to see a student with two kids.be something of a novelty (=seem new and unusual): · Fast-food restaurants like McDonald's are still something of a novelty in Moscow.
pioneering work, research, efforts etc introduce completely new ways of doing things, which are later followed and developed by other people: · Moore's pioneering work on semiconductors has made him perhaps the most famous figure in Silicon Valley.· Pioneering research shows that the experiences of childhood help form the brain's circuits for music and maths, language and emotion.
if a science or a new area of knowledge or study is in its infancy , people have just begun to find out more about it, to work with it etc: · The science of cybernetics is still in its infancy.· These rockets were built at a time when space technology was in its infancy.
WORD SETSagitate, verbagitation, nounagitator, nounbipartisan, adjectivebipartite, adjectivebloc, nounBolshevik, nouncapitalism, nouncentrist, adjectivecoalition, nouncommie, nouncommunism, nouncommunist, nouncommunist, adjectiveCon, confederacy, nounconfederate, nounconfederation, nouncongress, nounconservatism, nounDem., disloyal, adjectivedissident, noundivide, verbdivisive, adjectivefascism, nounfascist, nounfederal, adjectivefederate, verbfederation, nounfront, nounginger group, nounhegemony, nounheterodox, adjectiveIndependent, nouninfighting, nouninterest group, nounIRA, nounIron Curtain, the, Lab, Labour, nounleftie, nounleftist, adjectiveleft-of-centre, adjectiveleft-wing, adjectivelefty, nounLib Dem, nounLiberal, nounLiberal Democrats, nounLiberal Party, loyalist, nounLuddite, nounmachine, nounmajority leader, nounminority leader, nounmoderate, adjectivemoderate, nounmonarchist, nounmovement, nounnationalism, nounnationalist, adjectivenationalist, nounNazi, nounneutral, adjectivenon-partisan, adjectivepalace revolution, nounparamilitary, adjectivepartisan, adjectivepartisan, nounparty, nounparty political, adjectiveparty politics, nounpinko, nounpro-, prefixpro-choice, adjectiveR, rabble-rousing, nounradical, nounrally, nounreactionary, adjectiverealign, verbrebel, nounrebellion, nounrebellious, adjectivered, adjectivered, nounrepublican, nounrevolt, nounrevolt, verbrevolutionary, adjectiverevolutionary, nounrightist, adjectiveright-of-centre, adjectiveright-wing, adjectiveroyalist, nounseparatist, nounspecial interest group, nounsplinter group, nounsplit, verbsubcommittee, nounsubversion, nounsuffragette, nounsympathizer, nounsympathy, nountendency, nounTory, nounTrotskyite, nountrue-blue, adjectiveUnionist, nounuprising, nounWhig, nounwing, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
a revolutionary new drugCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES He approached the job with missionary zeal.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
a revolutionary new drug· He still believed in the revolutionary ideals of equality and justice.
He approached the job with missionary zeal.· The farmer and his wife want their area to take part in this revolutionary action.· Such political behavior can manifest itself in strikes, violent demonstrations, insurrections, and revolutionary action.· This episode helped spur the revolutionary action taken against the king at the Westminster Parliament which opened a week later.
· It is also, rather vaguely, thought of as a revolutionary activity.· When he was 17 years old, he was expelled from school for revolutionary activities and never returned to the class-room.· It concludes that this change induced by the outside power resulted in the country people becoming involved in revolutionary activity.
· Britain has undergone three periods of revolutionary change.· In part, the growth of peer pressure will result from revolutionary changes in pay practices.· Some systems are characterized by rapid and sometimes revolutionary change.· But this revolutionary change will not be painless.· Stone's analysis of the legislation provides a valuable corrective to those who have argued that it represented a revolutionary change.· It was an unconscious, evolutionary progression, with an occasional revolutionary change of which they became quite conscious.· Women in this country have made revolutionary changes in their roles in the past 25 years.
· There were some campesina women who wouldn't accept anything but worked in the fields as their form of helping the revolutionary forces.· Retreat, therefore, was always an option for revolutionary forces.
· Radical socialists urged that the Soviet was in a position to establish a revolutionary government in defiance of the Duma Committee.· One of the first decisions taken by the revolutionary government was to create multi-disciplinary mental-health teams operating in the community.
· The group, which began its uprising in February 1996, has links with other revolutionary groups.· They form a clearly defined revolutionary group, and have been called the Pioneers.· We supplied information to different revolutionary groups for many years about Devraux's work for the Surete.
· Keith joined us with just the expertise we required, and some revolutionary ideas, in 1991.· Unfortunately, the work containing his most revolutionary ideas has not been preserved.· In the event, however, the crisis served mainly to demonstrate the dominance of older pacifist traditions over revolutionary ideas.· Chapman's revolutionary ideas extended also to the running of the national team.· He had the revolutionary idea that gravity was not just a force that operated in a fixed background of space-time.· Like many great and revolutionary ideas in science this one was more or less ignored.· The Carrera 4 is bristling with revolutionary ideas.
· Characteristically, the patriarchy thesis generates a revolutionary ideology rather than a fatalistic acceptance of determinism and relativism.
· Burton played the anguished but heroic young captain who would not betray the revolutionary leader despite the systematic slaughter of six hostages.· A priest tells the story of a boy he rescued from poverty who grows up to become a revolutionary leader.· The gangs exist as intimations of a power which cancels Ahmed's claim to be a revolutionary leader.
· If the balance is maintained, the result is a revolutionary literature in which aesthetics mobilises ideology and ideology motivates aesthetics.· It is in this sense that Nizan's revolutionary literature demands a great deal from the reader.· Marxism, in short, constitutes the intellectual, moral and aesthetic guidelines of revolutionary literature.
· In surrealism the revolution of the psychic self the inner world, was symbiotically linked with revolutionary Marxism.· Divorced from the program of revolutionary Marxism, cadres immersed in the mass movement eventually succumb to opportunism.
· But they left largely unchallenged the Bolshevik view of October 1917 itself as the greatest achievement of the world revolutionary movement.· Appeals for support of a new revolutionary movement, therefore, gained relatively few adherents.· In addition the armed revolutionary movement was said to control or influence twenty percent of the country's villages.· On all sides, opportunities for growth are opening up for the revolutionary movement.· The second question concerns the types of groups most likely to comprise the largest support for violent rebellions or revolutionary movements.· The main center of the revolutionary movement thereupon shifted for the time being to the colonial countries.· It was these conditions that gave rise to the revolutionary movement or Alexander's reign.
· Although they founded the major revolutionary parties of the twentieth century, they were soon outnumbered within them.
· For that reason, a women's organization linked to the revolutionary process is very important.· In addition, any classification is time specific, because evolutionary and revolutionary processes can change the nature of a political system.
· Behind a veil of revolutionary rhetoric, the Council of People's Commissars suppressed the masses' striving for liberty.
· Within the revolutionary upheaval envisaged, relations between town and countryside are disrupted.· There will be no lack of revolutionary upheavals.· Such a pattern of attitudes is what one might expect from people suddenly drawn into politics by a revolutionary upheaval.
· The task of the revolutionary writer is therefore complex.· The revolutionary writer, by contrast, is a risk-taker.· The great revolutionary writer must retain the sophisticated literary qualities of Dostoievsky, whilst acceding to the clear-sighted political qualities of Lenin.
· Inside, I was gripped, as I always was, by the intense atmosphere of revolutionary zeal.· Both brought a revolutionary zeal to their work, literally and figuratively.
WORD FAMILYnounrevolutionrevolutionaryadjectiverevolutionaryverbrevolutionize
1completely new and different, especially in a way that leads to great improvements: The new cancer drug is a revolutionary breakthrough. a revolutionary new drug► see thesaurus at new2[only before noun] relating to a political or social revolution: a revolutionary leaderrevolutionary1 adjectiverevolutionary2 noun
revolutionaryrevolutionary2 AWL noun (plural revolutionaries) [countable] EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Garcia Gutierrez wrote two plays with revolutionaries as their heroes.
- Having taken control of the capital city, the revolutionaries proceeded to form a new government.
- They think they're revolutionaries, but they're nothing but common criminals.
- He checked out a book that contained police pictures of revolutionaries.
- He had become a professional revolutionary.
- In the late nineties when workers showed excessive interest in bread-and-butter issues, the revolutionaries denounced their petty-bourgeois, trade-unionist mentality.
- With each decade the revolutionaries became more and more concerned with efficiency.
- Women participate, not as feminists, but as revolutionaries to free ourselves from exploitation.
- Writers and filmmakers were no longer required to portray heroes as shining revolutionaries and villains as agents of the Saigon regime.
Longman Language Activatorsomeone who takes part in a rebellion
· The rebels attacked an airfield, exchanging fire with Russian troops.· A large number of rebels escaped to the east as the army closed in on Jaffra.
someone who takes part in or supports an attempt to change the government by using violence: · Having taken control of the capital city, the revolutionaries proceeded to form a new government.· Garcia Gutierrez wrote two plays with revolutionaries as their heroes.
someone who fights in an unofficial military group, trying to remove their country's existing government, especially by making surprise military attacks: · The guerrillas began their assault on March 8th.· Red Cross officials condemned the treatment that imprisoned guerrillas have received.· Four Western tourists held by armed guerrillas in Kashmir began their seventh month in captivity today.
someone who is fighting to try to remove their country's existing government - use this if you think that this is the right thing to do: · Ralph Fiennes plays an idealistic freedom fighter.· Young enthusiasts drove across the border to join the freedom fighters who had appealed to the world for help.
WORD SETSagitate, verbagitation, nounagitator, nounbipartisan, adjectivebipartite, adjectivebloc, nounBolshevik, nouncapitalism, nouncentrist, adjectivecoalition, nouncommie, nouncommunism, nouncommunist, nouncommunist, adjectiveCon, confederacy, nounconfederate, nounconfederation, nouncongress, nounconservatism, nounDem., disloyal, adjectivedissident, noundivide, verbdivisive, adjectivefascism, nounfascist, nounfederal, adjectivefederate, verbfederation, nounfront, nounginger group, nounhegemony, nounheterodox, adjectiveIndependent, nouninfighting, nouninterest group, nounIRA, nounIron Curtain, the, Lab, Labour, nounleftie, nounleftist, adjectiveleft-of-centre, adjectiveleft-wing, adjectivelefty, nounLib Dem, nounLiberal, nounLiberal Democrats, nounLiberal Party, loyalist, nounLuddite, nounmachine, nounmajority leader, nounminority leader, nounmoderate, adjectivemoderate, nounmonarchist, nounmovement, nounnationalism, nounnationalist, adjectivenationalist, nounNazi, nounneutral, adjectivenon-partisan, adjectivepalace revolution, nounparamilitary, adjectivepartisan, adjectivepartisan, nounparty, nounparty political, adjectiveparty politics, nounpinko, nounpro-, prefixpro-choice, adjectiveR, rabble-rousing, nounradical, nounrally, nounreactionary, adjectiverealign, verbrebel, nounrebellion, nounrebellious, adjectivered, adjectivered, nounrepublican, nounrevolt, nounrevolt, verbrevolutionary, adjectiverevolutionary, nounrightist, adjectiveright-of-centre, adjectiveright-wing, adjectiveroyalist, nounseparatist, nounspecial interest group, nounsplinter group, nounsplit, verbsubcommittee, nounsubversion, nounsuffragette, nounsympathizer, nounsympathy, nountendency, nounTory, nounTrotskyite, nountrue-blue, adjectiveUnionist, nounuprising, nounWhig, nounwing, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES He approached the job with missionary zeal.
· He still believed in the revolutionary ideals of equality and justice.
He approached the job with missionary zeal.WORD FAMILYnounrevolutionrevolutionaryadjectiverevolutionaryverbrevolutionize
someone who joins in or supports a political or social revolution: a band of young revolutionaries