believer

[bih-leev-er]

noun

1. someone who has confidence in the truth, existence, or reliability of something.

   I am a firm believer that evolution happened the way that evolutionary biologists describe.

   The team’s offensive coordinator is a big believer in the run game versus the passing game.

2. someone who has or professes faith in something, especially a religion.

   The church has grown from a handful of believers, meeting in the pastor’s living room, to a congregation now in excess of 1,000.

Other Word Forms

• pre-believer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of believer¹

believe ( def. ) + -er ¹

Example Sentences

True believers have a way of rhetorically overdoing it.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"I'm always a believer in timing. I look back to the Euros and yeah, I wish I could have played more, I wish I could have helped more," she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Read more on BBC

Cathie Wood is a firm believer that the economy is on the precipice of a technological revolution.

Read more on MarketWatch

Even a true climate believer such as Mr. Miliband is getting the message.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In Christianity, the individual believer was untethered from a wider religious community and became the locus of meaning and authority.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• adherent 
• devotee 
• disciple 
• follower 
• supporter 
• zealot