red pill

noun

variants or less commonly Red Pill

plural red pills also Red Pills

slang

: something that causes someone to become aware of or recognize the truth or facts (as of a situation)

—usually used in the phrase take the red pill

… take the red pill and learn more about the leading causes of climate change and its effects.

—Elizabeth Jenkins

—often used by and about followers of ultra-conservative or extremist ideologies to refer to the adoption of such ideologies

But taking the red pill … is much more commonly used on the internet to denote a right-wing political awakening.

—Jake Swearingen

… a term used in masculinist communities, "taking the red pill", which describes awakening to the "fact" that women are vain and vacuous and select their partners solely on genetically determined physical attributes.

—Newsweek.com

—sometimes used before another noun

the red pill movement

red piller

ˈred-ˌpi-lər 

noun

plural red pillers

Examples of red pill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

We were given a little red pill to dry up our breast milk. —Bea Lewis, Sun Sentinel, 10 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from a scene in the American science fiction film The Matrix (1999) in which the protagonist must choose between a blue pill that would cause him to forget his recent experiences and return to his former life, and a red pill that would show him the real world, in which humans live in a simulated reality created by intelligent machines that have enslaved them

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above