sedition

noun

se·​di·​tion si-ˈdi-shən 

: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority

Examples of sedition in a Sentence

The leaders of the group have been arrested and charged with sedition.

Recent Examples on the Web

Megalopolis posits a world of clueless liberal self-satisfaction, missing every point of contemporary alertness to ongoing lawfare and sedition. —Armond White, National Review, 4 Oct. 2024

Former Stand News editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam are the first journalists convicted under a colonial-era sedition law since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. —Kanis Leung, Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2024

Two Hong Kong journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper were sentenced to jail on Thursday after being convicted of sedition last month in a verdict seen as a further blow to press freedom in the Chinese territory. —Jennifer Jett, NBC News, 26 Sep. 2024

These are the first convictions for sedition in Hong Kong since the British handed the city over to China in 1997. —Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 3 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English sedicioun, from Anglo-French sediciun, from Latin sedition-, seditio, literally, separation, from sed-, se- apart + ition-, itio act of going, from ire to go — more at secede, issue entry 1

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

sedition

noun

se·​di·​tion si-ˈdish-ən 

: the stirring up of feelings against lawful authority

Legal Definition

sedition

noun

se·​di·​tion si-ˈdi-shən 

: the crime of creating a revolt, disturbance, or violence against lawful civil authority with the intent to cause its overthrow or destruction compare criminal syndicalism, sabotage

seditious

-shəs 

adjective

seditiously adverb

Etymology

Latin seditio, literally, separation, from sed apart + itio act of going, from ire to go