noun
adjective
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Etymology
Origin of extremist
Explanation
Nowadays, we tend to associate the word extremist with "terrorist," and use the two words almost interchangeably to define someone who holds radical political or religious views. An extremist can hold views on any subject: if you believe all little brothers should be banned from their siblings' rooms, or that anyone who roots for a different baseball team should be quarantined, then you, my friend, are an extremist. What tends to unite all extremists is their willingness to act, often violently, to realize their beliefs. Little brothers, watch out.
Vocabulary lists containing extremist
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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President Obama's U.N. Address
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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.
See Examples For:
My research on how these movements evolve online and intersect with political activists and extremist networks was directly relevant to tracing how COVID-origin claims moved from fringe communities into mainstream political discourse.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
He cut ties with the extremist group more than a decade ago and has long sought to position himself as a mainstream political leader.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
The court -- which on Monday published limited information confirming the case -- did not give details about what the "extremist" symbols were or his sentence.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
And psychologists and psychiatrists say kids, in their formative years, could easily see extremist content online and, in some cases, possibly connect with extremist groups in search of social belonging.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
He sat in the Long Parliament, and while an advocate of reform he was not an extremist.
From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene
On Thursday, his name appeared on Russia's online register of "terrorists and extremists" -- a blacklist maintained by Russia's Rosfinmonitoring financial watchdog.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Austria will formally open a new police station on Wednesday in Adolf Hitler's former house, in the hope of deterring today's ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator's birthplace.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Right-wing extremists remain the greatest threat to German democracy and their number increased significantly to 58,700 last year, the country's domestic intelligence service says.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
“The Department of Justice also knows that these confidential informants helped law enforcement put violent extremists in jail.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
In addition, more than 52 percent of the shootouts between extremists and police now involve white extremists.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
