alt-right

• alt-Right, alt right

Abbreviation of alternative right, equivalent to alt- +‎ right, due to it being an alternative to conventional American right-wing and Republican ideologies. The word took its current meaning from a website called 'Alternative Right' created by Richard Spencer and Colin Liddell in 2010, being used only sporadically prior to 2010. The word became prominent in 2015 with the rise of Donald Trump. In 2025, the beginning of Trump's second term, many formerly distinctive alt-right positions have merged into the mainstream Right.

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alt-right (countable and uncountable, plural alt-rights)

1. (uncountable) An amorphous movement of right-wing white nationalists opposed to multiculturalism and egalitarianism by race and sex, mostly active on the Internet.

   Synonym: alternative right

   Antonym: alt-left

   Coordinate terms: alt-left, alt-center, alt-light

   • 2003 March 31, Andrew Reeves, “Re: VDI: William F. Buckley Jr.”, in soc.history.what-if‎^[1] (Usenet), retrieved 16 November 2016, message-ID <[email protected]>:

     So a right without a Buckley will probably be smaller, and uglier to boot. I would expect this alt-right to be a lot more vigorously opposed to the civil rights movement than OTL's. It will also be much less relevant, and probably not snag a certain Californian actor. I predict, then, that America, on the whole, looks a bit more like a Western European social democracy, but with a right wing that looks (hmm...thinking...) well, looks almost fascist.

   • 2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 August 2016:

     "But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and 'woke' dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female 'Ghostbusters' and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay."

   • 2016 November 12, Stephen Collinson, “The mystery of Donald Trump’s White House”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     The choice is between a polemicist with deep ties to the alt-right movement, or a conventional policy professional with an open channel to the political establishment that Trump ran against, but which he needs to pass an agenda.

2. (countable, rare) A member of the alt-right; an alt-righter.

• alt-light
• alt-righter
• alt-rightist
• alt-tech

alt-right (comparative more alt-right, superlative most alt-right)

1. Of or pertaining to the alt-right.

• “alt-right”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “alt-right”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from English alt-right.

• IPA^(key): [ɑltˈraɪ̯t]

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alt-right n (uncountable)

1. alt-right

alt-right (not comparable)

1. alt-right