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Reactionary vs Reform - What's the difference?

reactionary | reform |

As nouns the difference between reactionary and reform

is that reactionary is one who is opposed to change while reform is amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government.

As an adjective reactionary

is opposed to change; urging a return to a previous state.

As a verb reform is

to put into a new and improved form or condition; to restore to a former good state, or bring from bad to good; to change from worse to better; to amend; to correct.

reactionary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Opposed to change; urging a return to a previous state.
  • Very conservative.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , date = 2011-09-29 , title = The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin , author = Corey Robin , location = New York , publisher = Oxford University Press , isbn = 9780199793747 , ol = 25101368M , page = 25 , pageurl = http://books.google.com/books?id=CWxIz_Gm9WMC&pg=PA25&dq=reactionary , passage = There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is. }}
  • (chemistry) Of, pertaining to, participating in or inducing a chemical reaction.
  • * 2013 , Brandon Smith, Are Individuals The Property Of The Collective?
    • Psychiatry extends the theory into biology in the belief that all human behavior is nothing more than a series of reactionary chemical processes in the brain that determine pre-coded genetic responses built up from the conditioning of one’s environment.

    Antonyms

    * nonreactionary

    Noun

    (wikipedia reactionary) (reactionaries)
  • One who is opposed to change.
  • One who is very conservative.

    • reform

    English

    (wikipedia reform) (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government.

    • Synonyms

    * reformation * amendment * rectification * correction

    Derived terms

    * monetary reform

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To put into a new and improved form or condition; to restore to a former good state, or bring from bad to good; to change from worse to better; to amend; to correct.
    • to reform''' a profligate man; to '''reform corrupt manners or morals
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it.
  • To return to a good state; to amend or correct one's own character or habits; as, a person of settled habits of vice will seldom reform.
  • (intransitive) To form again or in a new configuration.
    • This product contains reformed meat.
    The regiment reformed after surviving the first attack.
    The pop group reformed for one final tour.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=August 21 , author=Jason Heller , title=The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes —the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.}}

    Synonyms

    * amend * correct * rectify * mend * repair * better * improve * restore * reclaim

    Anagrams

    * former ----