Historical revisionism has both a legitimate academic use and a pejorative meaning.

Within the academic field of history, historical revisionism is the critical reexamination of historical facts, with an eye towards rewriting histories with either newly discovered information or a reinterpretation of existing information. The assumption is that history as it has been traditionally told may not be entirely accurate.

The pejorative use refers to illegitimate manipulation of history for political purposes, for example Holocaust denial. This meaning is described further in the article historical revisionism (negationism).