MEANING
A person who supports and argues for an idea, policy, theory, or proposed course of action.
Use it for
identifying who advocates a theoretical position; distinguishing support for a claim from its original authorship; presenting a viewpoint without assuming it is correctIdentifies someone advocating a position without assuming that they originated it. Academic functions: Argumentation.
Words that belong together
- a proponent of a theory
- a leading proponent
- proponents of reform
On the page
Proponents of the policy disagree about which mechanism would produce the expected benefit.
The essay distinguishes the theory’s original author from its later proponents.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- proponent
Usage notes
Countable: proponent, proponents. Commonly proponent of + idea, theory, policy or approach. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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