Scientist

//ˈsaɪəntɪst// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research, or make use of the results of the research of others.

    "As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist."

  2. 2
    a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
authoritybeakerexpertintellectualprotoscientistsavant

Example

More examples

"Scientific research is not a mechanical routine, but a continuing struggle on the part of the scientist."

Etymology

Coined by English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in March 1834 in an anonymous review of Mary Somerville's book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences in the Quarterly Review as a suggested replacement for, and later seriously introduced by him in 1840 (see the quotation) as a more precise substitute for, the terms natural philosopher and man of science. Modeled after artist, from the Latin stem scientia (“knowledge”) + -ist.

Related phrases

bench scientistchief scientistcitizen scientistcreation scientistcrime scientistcriminal scientistdata scientiste-scientistenvironmental scientistfood scientistgentleman scientistmad scientist

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