Definition of "dissenter" [dis•sent•er]

• One who dissents: political dissenters. (noun)
• One who refuses to accept the doctrines or usages of an established or a national church, especially a Protestant who dissents from the Church of England. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The struggle of the dissenter is to find a tongue in which to speak: a vernacular that is, as the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England so quaintly yet memorably put it, one “understanded of the people.”"
• "Every dissenter is going to use the "ya-but" defense, in most cases saying that this time it's different, but let's face it - life is change, life requires change, and life relishes change."
• "DOPPER A dissenter from the Dutch Reformed Church, but generally applied to Dutchmen in South Africa."