alt-right

noun

ˈȯlt-ˈrīt 

variants or less commonly alt right

: a right-wing, primarily online political movement or grouping based in the U.S. whose members reject mainstream conservative politics and espouse extremist beliefs and policies typically centered on ideas of white nationalism

Welcome to the alt-right. The label blends together straight-up white supremacists, nationalists who think conservatives have sold out to globalization, and nativists who fear immigration will spur civil disarray.

—Dylan Matthews

Rather than concede the moral high ground to the left, the alt right turns the left's moralism on its head and makes it a badge of honor to be called "racist," "homophobic," and "sexist."

—Benjamin Welton

Regardless of who triumphs at the ballot box, the biggest winner of this presidential election may be the alt-right: a sprawling coalition of reactionary conservatives who have lobbied to make the United States more "traditional," more "populist" and more white.

—Jonathon Morgan

—often used before another noun

an alt-right manifesto

Secularism is indeed correlated with greater tolerance of gay marriage and pot legalization. But it's also making America's partisan clashes more brutal. And it has contributed to the rise of … the so-called alt-right movement, whose members see themselves as proponents of white nationalism.

—Peter Beinart

Examples of alt-right in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Warrior Essentials is one of many companies that trade on unfounded theories about the dangers of vaccines, which have proliferated in the alt-right social media landscape since the pandemic — ideas that are not backed by science. —Aria Bendix, NBC News, 4 Dec. 2024

Musk also appeared to criticize Twitter deputy general counsel Jim Baker in a response to a tweet by alt-right influencer Mike Cernovich—one of the biggest proponents of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory—and Baker has been subject to similar abuse. —Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, 27 Apr. 2022

More recently, however, both the manosphere and the alt-right have adopted the term cuck as a more general synonym for weakness, desperation and foolishness. —Brooke Scelza, Scientific American, 19 Sep. 2024

Spencer is known as the creator of the alt-right, a 15-year-old movement described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as being unified by the core belief that white identity is under attack. —Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, 12 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

short for alternative right

First Known Use

2009, in the meaning defined above