as in rebel
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Recent Examples of agent provocateur
The Italian Marco Materazzi was an agent provocateur, tossing out words about Zidane’s family like a grenade set to spew forth a red mist.
—
Amy Lawrence,
New York Times,
31 May 2026
And for good reason; Villanueva spent his four years in office more as an agent provocateur than a public safety official.
—
The Editorial Board,
Daily News,
13 May 2026
Members of the crowd accused Epps of being an agent provocateur, which later helped spur the conspiracy theories about him.
—
Justin Jouvenal,
Washington Post,
9 Jan. 2024
Anyone who maligns the sultan is immediately thought to be an agent provocateur working for the sultan, and probably is.
—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
30 Sep. 2022
Amy Lawrence,
New York Times,
31 May 2026
And for good reason; Villanueva spent his four years in office more as an agent provocateur than a public safety official.
—
The Editorial Board,
Daily News,
13 May 2026
Members of the crowd accused Epps of being an agent provocateur, which later helped spur the conspiracy theories about him.
—
Justin Jouvenal,
Washington Post,
9 Jan. 2024
Anyone who maligns the sultan is immediately thought to be an agent provocateur working for the sultan, and probably is.
—
Judith Shulevitz,
The Atlantic,
30 Sep. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agent provocateur
Noun
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Gillespie also has a reputation for melding music to movies, as seen in Cruella, his 2021 movie that cast Disney villainess Cruella de Vil as a punk rock rebel in London’s fashion scene.
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The winner is the daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, the former president whose government in the 1990s defeated the Shining Path extremist rebel group but also took an authoritarian turn.
Noun
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Fujimori, 51, is the daughter of late President Alberto Fujimori, who governed the country with an iron fist from 1990 to 2000 and was credited with defeating Maoist insurgents and taming runaway hyperinflation.
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Syria has been without a parliament since the December 2024 offensive by insurgents led by al-Sharaa’s now defunct Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which ended the Assad family’s five-decade dynasty.
Noun
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More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically massacred in the East African nation by Hutu extremists over roughly 100 days from April to July 1994.
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Opportunists like the daycare group, which was selling weapons, and extremists — not the hobbyists.
Noun
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This year’s milestone edition furthers that legacy by pairing foundational film voices with the next generation of artistic troublemakers.
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To help boost those numbers, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) recently released a brief PSA video advising on the best ways to locate and dispatch the ongoing troublemakers.
Noun
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Good luck with that message in flyover country when the revolutionaries don’t enjoy the advantages of light-turnout primaries.
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Many became meeting places for the Founding Fathers and other revolutionaries as tensions with Britain grew.
Noun
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One of OpenAI’s biggest investors is Softbank, the massive Japanese telecoms company run by tech booster Masayoshi Son.
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Additionally, Thursday morning’s mission was the last to use the Atlas V’s most powerful configuration with five strap-on solid rocket boosters.
Noun
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Elsie Peacock Hand has been a mayor, bank vice president, country music promoter, and longtime political aide and booster, Patricia Murphy writes.
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Other guests in attendance include AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron, Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, Dana Walden, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge, Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman and Swift’s longtime tour promoter Louie Messina.
Noun
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The ritual confers the Holy Spirit from one bishop to another and recalls Christ’s gesture to his apostles.
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According to the gospels, Jesus traveled here from biblical Galilee, while the apostle Paul established a thriving church here.
Cite this Entry
“Agent provocateur.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agent%20provocateur. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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