For the British newspaper and Marxist organization see Militant tendency. For the newspaper of the US Socialist Workers Party see The Militant.
The word militant has come to refer to any individual or party displaying serious comment or engaged in aggressive physical or verbal combat, usually for a cause. Journalists often use militant as a neutral term for soldiers who do not belong to an established government military organization. Typically, a militant engages in violence as part of a claimed struggle against oppression, but the word is sometimes used to describe anyone with strongly held views (e.g. militant Christian, militant atheist).Popular usage sometimes sees "militants" as synonymous with terrorists. The term "militant state" colloquially refers to a state which holds an aggressive posture in support of an ideology or cause. In French and Philippine English the term "militant" retains a more moderate meaning of "activist" which it formerly had in most other varieties of