fundamentalist
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of fundamentalist
First recorded in 1920–25; fundamental ( def. ) + -ist ( def. )
Explanation
If you love to talk about what a strict vegan you are, your friends might start calling you a fundamentalist, or a person who sticks very closely to a particular set of principles. The word fundamentalist is used most often to talk about religion. As an adjective, it describes a very strict, literal interpretation of a religious text or set of beliefs, and the noun means a person who holds those firm, often extreme, beliefs. Fundamentalist is a relatively recent term, invented in the 1920s in the United States to describe a Protestant movement during that era.
Vocabulary lists containing fundamentalist
U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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"Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" by Rudolfo Anaya
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U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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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.
Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of several bestselling books including "The Family" and "C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy."
From Salon • Aug. 19, 2022
Fundamentalist religion was quite prevalent on the Palouse, and local churches worked toward temperance.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 5, 2022
A handful of splinter groups still practice plural marriage, with the most well-known being a community on the Utah-Arizona border known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS.
From Washington Times • Mar. 4, 2021
Dateline NBC Motivational speaker Rebecca Musser talks about her life in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and what made her leave that Mormon denomination.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2020
Pastor of the Presbyterian Church having the largest membership in the world, he is a fearless protagonist of Fundamentalist doctrine and greatly in demand at conventions and other gatherings.
From God's Plan with Men by Martin, T. T. (Thomas Theodore)
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.
