Whataboutist
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who uses whataboutism.
"But for the charge to really stick they have three options, none of which whataboutists usually take the trouble to perform: condemn both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump for meeting with dictators, praise both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump, or show how the cases are in some significant way different so that Mr. Obama deserves praise while Mr. Trump does not."
- 1 Of or pertaining to whataboutism.
"Similarly, in response to being told off for the state of her room, one child’s whataboutist reply will be to say: “But what about my brother’s room? His is worse.”"
Example
More examples"Similarly, in response to being told off for the state of her room, one child’s whataboutist reply will be to say: “But what about my brother’s room? His is worse.”"
Etymology
From what about + -ist, see whataboutism.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.