typist
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of typist
1835–45 for earlier sense “typesetter”; 1880–85 for current sense; type + -ist
Explanation
If you work as a typist in an office, you'll be typing up notes, reports, emails, or manuscripts. Nowadays, a typist typically uses a computer keyboard. Once upon a time, typists did all their typing on typewriters, but that's extremely unusual in today's era of computers and printers. Starting around 1884, a typist was "a person who operates a typewriter," although earlier the word meant "compositer," or the person who arranges type in a printing press. Typist comes from type, which derives from the Greek root typos, "dent, impression, or mark."
Vocabulary lists containing typist
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.
When did I become such a terrible iPhone typist?
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
"It was because I was such a bad typist and was ruining so much of their expensive paper!" she joked.
From BBC • Nov. 25, 2024
It took the city 377 business days to approve a list of candidates for a clerk typist position and 362 calendar days for a position at the Long Beach port, he wrote.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2024
For years, as a two-finger typist, he exuberantly turned out one major article after another.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2024
She worked the swing shift at Chase Manhattan Bank as a typist, leaving home at three P.M. and returning around two A.M.,
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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.
