Sedition


incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.
any action, especially in speech or writing, promoting such discontent or rebellion.
Archaic. rebellious disorder.
Contemporary Examples

Waited to hear what she would make, even at this early hearing, of the charge he faced: sedition.
The Sedition Files: How an Indian Cartoonist Becomes a Criminal Dilip D’Souza September 20, 2012

So does his comment about treason, which plugs into the mentality of those accusing the President of sedition and disloyalty.
Paranoia Crept into American Political Life a Long Time Ago Lewis Beale October 18, 2014

My mother was a pamphleteer by temperament, and she knew that sedition and controversy are fired by printed matter.
Only Six Books: Excerpt From Jeanette Winterson’s New Memoir Jeanette Winterson March 6, 2012

The writer Arundhati Roy was accused of sedition in a 2010 speech about Kashmir.
The Sedition Files: How an Indian Cartoonist Becomes a Criminal Dilip D’Souza September 20, 2012

As the Army recovered from Vietnam, it rediscovered inherent powers to combat espionage, sedition, and subversion.
Why We Should Screen Muslim Soldiers Ken Allard November 26, 2009

Historical Examples

The smaller states, especially those which border on the Rhine, gradually became the acknowledged hotbeds of sedition.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848 Various

The thought staggered him, and he felt as if he had filled his mind with treason and sedition!
The Foolish Lovers St. John G. Ervine

This rule, in his opinion, much more deserved the character of a “Gag-law,” than the sedition law did.
Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.) Various

sedition is talked round every tin of bully beef on the Peninsula.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 Ian Hamilton

The Wesleys were represented as “bold movers of sedition and ringleaders of the rabble, to the disgrace of their order.”
The Young People’s Wesley W. McDonald

noun
speech or behaviour directed against the peace of a state
an offence that tends to undermine the authority of a state
an incitement to public disorder
(archaic) revolt
n.

mid-14c., “rebellion, uprising, revolt, concerted attempt to overthrow civil authority; violent strife between factions, civil or religious disorder, riot; rebelliousness against authority,” from Old French sedicion (14c., Modern French sédition) and directly from Latin seditionem (nominative seditio) “civil disorder, dissention, strife; rebellion, mutiny,” literally “a going apart, separation,” from se- “apart” (see secret) + itio “a going,” from past participle of ire “to go” (see ion).

Meaning “conduct or language inciting to rebellion against a lawful government” is from 1838. An Old English word for it was folcslite. Less serious than treason, as wanting an overt act, “But it is not essential to the offense of sedition that it threaten the very existence of the state or its authority in its entire extent” [Century Dictionary].

Acts that incite rebellion or civil disorder against an established government.

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