Purist

//ˈpjʊəɹɪst// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An advocate of purism.

    "One of the difficulties that plague conversations about industrial music is that the genre has come to include (to the chagrin and outright denial of some purists) anything from gentle synthesized droning to metal-inspired riffage."

  2. 2
    someone who insists on great precision and correctness (especially in the use of words) wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to purism.

    "He was the first to play for money, a practice which got him ousted from the purist U.S. Lawn Tennis Association."

Synonyms

All synonyms
assbigotbigotedbitter-enderbluestockingbullethead

Example

More examples

"Many Americans insist that immigrants speak English, but wouldn't a true language purist insist on Old English, wynns, thorns, edhs and all?"

Etymology

Borrowed from French puriste. By surface analysis, pur(e) + -ist.

Related phrases

purist Greek

More for "purist"

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.