Contextualist

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A proponent of contextualism, or the importance of context.

    "He is more of a contextualist, believing that “letters are fluid, that they change with time and circumstance — the entire word is more important than a single letter, and its form can fluctuate.”"

  2. 2
    One who believes that scalar implicatures arise from contextual inference, not from a default association with a word.

    "A contextualist believes that the phrase "some eels are fish" is primarily interpreted as "some, and perhaps all, eels are fish", and the pragmatic interpretation "some, but not all, eels are fish" only appears when demanded by the context."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or supporting contextualism not-comparable

Example

More examples

"He is more of a contextualist, believing that “letters are fluid, that they change with time and circumstance — the entire word is more important than a single letter, and its form can fluctuate.”"

Etymology

From contextual + -ist.

More for "contextualist"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.