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Revolution vs Reactionary - What's the difference?

revolution | reactionary |

As nouns the difference between revolution and reactionary

is that revolution is revolution while reactionary is one who is opposed to change.

As an adjective reactionary is

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

revolution

English

(wikipedia revolution)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A political upheaval in a government or nation state characterized by great change.
  • The removal and replacement of a government.
  • Rotation: the turning of an object around an axis.
  • * 1912 , P. M. Heldt, The Gasoline Automobile: Its Design and Construction, Volume II: Transmission, Running Gear and Control , The Horseless Age Co. (1913), page 147:
    • The ratio between the speeds of revolution of wheel and disc is substantially equal to the reciprocal of the ratio between the diameter of the wheel and the diameter of the mean contact circle on the disc.
  • A rotation: one complete turn of an object during rotation.
  • * 1864 , D. M. Warren, The Common-School Geography , Revised Edition, H. Cowperthwait & Co., page 6:
    • The Earth has two motions: a daily revolution (or turning around) upon its axis , and a yearly course around the sun.
  • * 1878 , George Fleming, A Text-Book of Veterinary Obstetrics , Baillière, Tindall, & Cox, page 123:
    • Numerous cases are recorded which incontestibly prove that during pregnancy, the uterus perform a half or even a complete revolution , on itself, producing torsion of the cervix
  • In the case of celestial bodies - the traversal of one body through an orbit around another body.
  • A sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving.

    • Usage notes

    * Astronomers today do not use (term) to refer to the turning of an object about an axis: they use (rotation) for that, and (term) only for the traversal of a body through an orbit (which also happens around some axis). (This may be somewhat customary, however, strictly speaking, using either word for either process would not be incorrect.)

    Antonyms

    * evolution

    Derived terms

    * revolutionary * revolutionize Compounds * agricultural revolution * artistic revolution * French Revolution * Industrial Revolution * solid of revolution * information revolution

    Related terms

    * revolve

    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.