devil's advocates
Purposeful opposition voicers
Devil's advocates are people who argue a position they don't necessarily believe, typically to test an idea or provoke deeper discussion.
The role comes from a Catholic Church office that argued against candidates for sainthood.
Now it's usually informal: Let me play devil's advocate here—what if the plan fails?
The phrase often prefaces contrarian questions meant to strengthen rather than undermine an argument.
- debaterOne who argues positions
- contrarianChronic majority-opposer
- just sayingVerbal shrug after criticism
- other sideContrary position or location
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
disagreement · Socratic method · thought experiment · provocateur · constructive criticism · challenger · analysis · polemicist · dialectics · refutation · evaluation · arguer · dissent · foil · interlocutor · questioning · logician · reasoning
- Iconoclastsheretics, freethinkers, dissidents, mavericks, radicals
- obstaclesbarriers, block, obstacles, barrier, blockers
- discussion rolespanelists, speakers, moderators, debaters, respondents
- negativistspessimists, defeatists, doomers, doomsayers, negative Nellies
devil's advocatestrue believers
Unwavering adherents to doctrine
zealots · ideologues · dogmatists · purists · die-hards
devil's advocateschampions
Contest winners, top performers
defenders · advocates · supporters · endorsers · backers
devil, devils, devil's, devilish, devilry, deviltry, bedevil, bedeviled, bedeviling