Revolt

How to spell revolt

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce revolt

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does revolt mean?

1. verbTo rise up in rebellion against an authority or government.
2. nounAn act of rebellion or uprising against authority.
3. verbTo fill someone with strong disgust or revulsion.

Revolt in a sentence

• verb

  The citizens threatened to revolt against the new tax.

• noun

  The failed revolt left the old government firmly in power.

• verb

  The smell of rotten meat began to revolt everyone in the kitchen.

• verb

  Underpaid workers began to revolt when their wages were cut again.

• noun

  News of the peasant revolt spread quickly across the region.

• verb

  The cruelty in the report would revolt any decent reader.

Where does revolt come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb revolvere, meaning 'to roll back' or 'to turn back', formed from the prefix re- ('back') and volvere ('to roll' or 'to turn'). That same volvere root gives English a whole family of turning words, including 'revolve', 'evolve', and 'volume' (originally a rolled scroll). The sense of physically turning back shifted into the idea of turning against one's rulers, and the word reached English in the late 1500s through the French révolter, which itself drew on the Italian rivoltare. From the political meaning of rising up against authority, English later developed the figurative sense of the stomach 'turning' in disgust, which is why we say something can revolt us. Keeping the volvere root in mind helps explain the single 'l' and the 'volt' spelling, since it shares its core with revolve rather than with any word ending in '-vault'.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• volt (from Latin volvere: to roll/turn)