countermovement

noun

variants or counter-movement
plural countermovements or counter-movements
1
: a movement in an opposite direction
She observed that whenever the body abruptly moves one way, there is a fallout of countermovements and readjustments … Paul Trachtman
Suburban stress has not produced any large-scale countermovement back to the cities or out to the countryside, however. William Schneider
2
: an organized movement that arises in opposition to something
Opponents labeled the whole program socialistic, and, in the 1960s, a strong countermovement developed … The Bangor Daily News

Examples of countermovement in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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To steady the user's hand, the exoskeleton detects the rhythmic movements caused by the tremor and uses its actuators to produce precise countermovements, pushing on the arm with vibration-like motions that cancel out the shaking. IEEE Spectrum, 29 June 2016 And, Zuboff warns, surveillance capitalism has thus far escaped the sort of countermovement described by Polanyi. Paul Starr, Foreign Affairs, 10 Oct. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1818, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of countermovement was circa 1818

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Cite this Entry

“Countermovement.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/countermovement. Accessed 31 Mar. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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