Rebellion

How to spell rebellion

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rebellion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rebellion mean?

1. nounAn organised act of resistance or open defiance against an established government or authority.

Rebellion in a sentence

• The failed harvest sparked an open rebellion against the tax collectors.

• History students spent the term studying the causes of the peasant rebellion.

Where does rebellion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb rebellare, which literally meant 'to wage war again', formed from re- 'again' and bellare 'to make war', itself from bellum 'war'. In Roman use it described a people who had been conquered rising up once more against their rulers, so the idea of a renewed armed challenge was built into the word from the start. It passed into English through Old French rebellion in the 1300s, keeping the sense of organised resistance to an established authority. The same bellum root survives in the English word 'belligerent', meaning warlike, and in 'antebellum', meaning before a war. The spelling trap lives in the ending: a single b but a doubled l before the -ion, mirroring its relative 'rebel'.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• bell (war, from Latin bellum)
• -ion (noun suffix)