defiance.

Open resistance to an authority, demand, rule or expectation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• open defiance
• in defiance of a rule

On the page

Her open defiance changed the quiet disagreement into a public conflict.

He acted in defiance of the rule after explicitly challenging its legitimacy.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / character / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: characterization, motivation analysis, behavioral comparison, qualification. Disciplines: psychology, social behavior, character writing. Commonness: moderately common.