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History vocabulary · Revolutions and Political Change

Uprising

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˈʌpraɪzɪŋ/nounCore term

In history, uprising means: An act of resistance in which a group of people rise up against those in power, usually in a particular region or city and often with few weapons.

In Turkish: ayaklanma, isyan

How it is used

Uprisings break out, spread, and are crushed, suppressed or put down. Revolt and rebellion are close synonyms; revolution usually means a deeper change of the whole system. The verb is rise up: The peasants rose up against the new tax.

Example sentences

  1. The uprising spread quickly from the capital to the provinces.

  2. Spartacus led a slave uprising against Rome in 73 BC.

Common collocations

  • an armed uprising
  • a popular uprising
  • crush an uprising
  • lead an uprising
  • a peasant uprising
  • revolutionThe sudden, often violent overthrow of a government or political system by its people, or any deep and rapid change in society, the economy or ideas.
  • coupA sudden and usually illegal seizure of power by a small group, often army officers, who remove the existing government by force or the threat of force.
  • peasantA person who lives in the countryside and farms a small piece of land with family labour, often paying rent, taxes or labour services to a landowner or the state.
  • regimeA system of government, or the group of people in power in a country for a certain period, often used for governments that are not democratic.

More terms: Revolutions and Political Change

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