partisan.
An adherent to a party or faction.
Meaning & usage
An adherent to a party or faction.
A fervent, sometimes militant, supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.
A member of a band of detached light, irregular troops acting behind occupying enemy lines in the ways of harassment or sabotage; a guerrilla fighter.
The commander of a body of detached light troops engaged in making forays and harassing an enemy.
Where this word comes from
From French partisan, from Italian partigiano (“defender of a party”), from parte (“part”). Doublet of partigiano. Attested in English from the late 15th century in the noun sense of "party adherent", and in related adjective senses from the 16th century. The "guerrilla fighter" sense influenced by Serbo-Croatian partizan, Russian партиза́н (partizán), from the same source. The sense of "guerrilla fighter" is from c. 1690. The adjective in the military sense dates from the early 18th century.
Serving as commander or member of a body of detached light troops.
partisan officer, partisan corps
Adherent to a party or faction; especially, having the character of blind, passionate, or unreasonable adherence to a party.
They were blinded by partisan zeal.
Devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause.
partisan politics
Where this word comes from
From French partisan, from Italian partigiano (“defender of a party”), from parte (“part”). Doublet of partigiano. Attested in English from the late 15th century in the noun sense of "party adherent", and in related adjective senses from the 16th century. The "guerrilla fighter" sense influenced by Serbo-Croatian partizan, Russian партиза́н (partizán), from the same source. The sense of "guerrilla fighter" is from c. 1690. The adjective in the military sense dates from the early 18th century.
A long-handled spear with a triangular, double-edged blade having lateral projections, in some forms also used in boar hunting.
A soldier armed with such a weapon.
Where this word comes from
From French partizaine, from Middle French partizaine, partisanne etc., from Italian partigiana, related to Etymology 1 above (apparently because it was seen as a typical weapon of such forces).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.