as in dissident
deviating from commonly accepted beliefs or practices
a cattle-ranching family that took some time in getting used to their daughter's nonconformist adoption of vegetarianism
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in maverick
a person who does not conform to generally accepted standards or customs
always the nonconformist, she insisted on wearing red on St. Patrick's Day and not green like everyone else
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dissenter
a person who believes, teaches, or advocates something opposed to accepted beliefs
a nonconformist who was excommunicated from her church for her teachings
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of nonconformist
Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2022
Ye, however, was widely known to be both a perfectionist and a nonconformist.
—New York Times, 25 July 2022
Fedoras, trilbys and Panamas seem to proclaim the wearer as either an extravagant nonconformist or an anti-feminist reactionary.
—New York Times, 15 July 2022
The Return of Tanya Tucker is a fittingly unconventional portrait of a nonconformist.
—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2022
See All Example Sentences for nonconformist
Noun
In her breakthrough piece, Heretic, Graham is dressed in white and rebuffed and rebuked by a group of 12 women dressed in black: the punishment of the nonconformist.
—Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2022
Ye, however, was widely known to be both a perfectionist and a nonconformist.
—New York Times, 25 July 2022
Fedoras, trilbys and Panamas seem to proclaim the wearer as either an extravagant nonconformist or an anti-feminist reactionary.
—New York Times, 15 July 2022
The Return of Tanya Tucker is a fittingly unconventional portrait of a nonconformist.
—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2022
See All Example Sentences for nonconformist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonconformist
Adjective
-
In 1735, dissident publisher John Peter Zenger was charged with seditious libel for criticizing New York’s royal governor.—
Mike Fox,
Chicago Tribune,
14 May 2025
-
Further down the totem pole, hundreds of thousands of white-collar professionals—particularly in IT, finance, and business services—are benefiting from higher salaries as their dissident peers emigrate and their skills become scarcer.—
ALEXANDER GABUEV,
Foreign Affairs,
17 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Your Ability To Work Within A Structured System Franchising isn’t necessarily for the maverick who is looking to reinvent themselves and their passion.—
Seth Lederman,
Forbes.com,
6 June 2025
-
Think of Ait-Nouri as a Joao Cancelo type full-back; a maverick in possession, inventive, good in tight spaces, and able to play in the pockets or out wide in a flexible Pep Guardiola team.—
David Ornstein,
New York Times,
2 June 2025
Noun
-
Similar incidents also happened in Talbot County, where dissenters were imprisoned by the occupying military command.—
Paul Callahan,
Baltimore Sun,
29 May 2025
-
The Nicolás Maduro regime has intensified its authoritarian grip, driving opposition figures, human rights activists, journalists, and ordinary dissenters either underground or into exile.—
Antonio Maria Delgado,
Miami Herald,
19 May 2025
Adjective
-
This unconventional talent pool helped Tesla streamline operations and scale faster than legacy automakers expected.—
David Villa,
Forbes.com,
5 June 2025
-
There was something transgressive and liberating about an aesthetic that inverted not only good and bad taste but also conventional and unconventional morality.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
3 June 2025
Noun
-
The director Doris Wishman was a renegade: a woman who made lurid exploitation films at a time when American underground cinema was a man’s playground.—
Erik Piepenburg,
New York Times,
2 June 2025
-
Krasinski plays Luke, the sort of quippy renegade who clearly watched too many Indiana Jones movies in his youth.—
Frank Scheck,
HollywoodReporter,
22 May 2025
Adjective
-
In the dissenting view, the star collapses to the edge of the event horizon and then hovers there, or rebounds and explodes.—
Corey S. Powell,
Discover Magazine,
26 Feb. 2015
-
The document runs to more than a hundred and fifty pages, and for each question there are affirmative and dissenting studies, as well as some that indicate mixed results.—
The New Yorker,
The New Yorker,
3 June 2022
Noun
-
To take her mind off him, Agathe meets an Austen-like family of eccentrics running the retreat and the sometimes pretentious writers attending it.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
22 May 2025
-
But the settlers’ belief in the value of public goods and embrace of independent thinkers remain woven into the character of the city, which continues to attract artists, eccentrics and writers.—
Isabelle Taft,
New York Times,
4 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Nonconformist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonconformist. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share