physicist
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of physicist
Explanation
A physicist is a scientist who studies and is trained in physics, which is the study of nature, especially how matter and energy behave. Do you ever wonder how things work? If you're interested in what makes magnets attract iron or what's happening in atoms, then maybe you should become a physicist. Physicists study physics, which is related to the word physical. Physicists are interested in everything that physically exists, from tiny gadgets to massive stars. It takes many years of school to become a physicist, and physicists work on complex projects such as space travel and new energy sources.
Vocabulary lists containing physicist
Albert Einstein
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Bomb
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The Subtle Knife
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Physicist Dr. Robert Goddard launched a rocket from a farm in Massachusetts in 1926.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
Physicist Karl Compton, an ARD founder and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president, described new industries as “babies…their parents are science and invention.”
From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026
Physicist Andrea Alù likens the behavior of light in chaotic systems to the initial break shot in a game of billiards.
From Science Daily • Nov. 2, 2023
Physicist Albert Einstein first theorized about the existence of gravitational waves in 1916.
From Salon • Jun. 29, 2023
Physicist Maurice Goldhaber compared this Big Science photograph to his memories of Ernest Rutherford holding his experimental apparatus in his own lap.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
