provocateurs
Those inciting trouble
Provocateurs are people who deliberately stir up trouble or provoke others to action.
The term often appears in agent provocateur, someone who infiltrates a group to incite members toward illegal acts that justify crackdowns.
More broadly, provocateurs challenge conventions or spark controversy: artistic provocateurs, political provocateurs.
The word carries implications of calculated disruption rather than spontaneous agitation.
Those who incite disturbance
- dissidentsPolitical objectors
- radicalsAdvocates for fundamental change
- activistsPeople working for causes
- instigatorsThose who initiate trouble
subversives · revolutionaries · anarchists · rabble-rousers · firebrands · militants · extremists · seditionists
Those who initiate trouble
- stirrersTools for mixing drinks
- trollsDeliberate online agitators
- gadfliesPersistent annoying critics
- contrariansHabitual position opposers
agitators · devil's advocates · hecklers · disruptors · mischief-makers · antagonists · inciters · needlers
Those who act for others
- infiltratorsThose entering by stealth
- operativesThose who execute missions
- molesBurrowing insectivore mammals
- plantsPhotosynthesizing rooted organisms
spies · saboteurs · handlers · informants · assets · counterintelligence · entrapment · COINTELPRO
Innovative cultural pioneers
- shockViolent sudden disturbance
- transgressionViolation of law or code
- controversyProlonged public disagreement
- tabooCultural or social prohibition
boundaries · disruption · confrontation · scandal · outrage · sensation · censorship · manifestos
agitators
Those who incite disturbance
- dissidentsPolitical objectors
- radicalsAdvocates for fundamental change
- activistsPeople working for causes
instigators · subversives · revolutionaries · anarchists · rabble-rousers · firebrands · militants · extremists · seditionists · insurgents
instigators
Those who initiate trouble
contrarians · agitators · devil's advocates · hecklers · disruptors · mischief-makers · antagonists · inciters · needlers · catalysts
agents
Those who act for others
- infiltratorsThose entering by stealth
- operativesThose who execute missions
- molesBurrowing insectivore mammals
plants · spies · saboteurs · handlers · informants · assets · counterintelligence · entrapment · COINTELPRO · surveillance
avant-garde
Innovative cultural pioneers
- shockViolent sudden disturbance
- transgressionViolation of law or code
- controversyProlonged public disagreement
taboo · boundaries · disruption · confrontation · scandal · outrage · sensation · censorship · manifestos · iconoclasts
- Iconoclastsheretics, freethinkers, dissidents, mavericks, radicals
- repressionsecret police, mass arrests, torture, disappearances, detention camps
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- enemiesenemy, foe, foes, adversary, nemesis
- noisemakersnoisemaker, air horn, bell, buzzer, kazoo
- show-offsbraggarts, boasters, showboats, grandstanders, egotists
provocateurspeacemakers
Those who resolve conflicts
peacekeepers · mediators · conciliators · reconcilers · pacifiers
provocateursstabilizers
Mechanisms ensuring steadiness
pacifiers · conservatives · preservers · traditionalists · maintainers
provocateurscalmers
Things that soothe
peacemakers · soothers · appeasers · placaters · stabilizers
- agent provocateurInfiltrator inciting illegal action