Definition of "separatist" []

• One who secedes or advocates separation, especially from an established church; a sectarian or separationist. (noun)
• One who advocates disjunction of a group from a larger group or political unit: Basque separatists. (noun)
• One who advocates cultural, ethnic, or racial separation. (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.

• "Nobody in the PMO's communications office has yet answered the question why Harper has been using the term separatist when speaking of the Bloc Québecois for his anglophone audience and souverainiste when he speaks French."
• "The term separatist movements usually refers to social movements that aspire to autonomy for a particular group of people from a dominant political institution under which they suffer"
• "Joel Mahlangu of Mamelodi agreed, saying it was dangerous to promote what he called separatist ideology in education."