word
civil disobedience
SIV-ul dis-oh-BEE-dee-ents
ˈsɪvəl ˌdɪsəˈbiːdiənsListen
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Syllable breakdown
civildisobedience
Dictionary meaning
the deliberate, nonviolent, and public refusal to comply with specific laws or government directives considered unjust, undertaken to exert moral pressure for political change while accepting the legal consequences as a demonstration of commitment to the rule of law and the seriousness of the moral objection; theorised by Henry David Thoreau, practised by Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha campaigns, and central to Martin Luther King Jr's strategy in the American civil rights movement
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