nationalist

American  

[nash-uh-nl-ist, nash-nuh-list] / ˈnæʃ ə nl ɪst, ˈnæʃ nə lɪst /

noun

• nationalists
  plural

1. a person devoted to nationalism.

2. (initial capital letter) a member of a political group advocating or fighting for national independence, a strong national government, etc.

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adjective

1. Also nationalistic. of, relating to, or promoting nationalism.

   the beginnings of a nationalist movement.

2. (initial capital letter) of, relating to, or noting a political group advocating or fighting for national independence, a strong national government, etc.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antinationalist
  noun
• antinationalistic
  adjective
• hypernationalistic
  adjective
• nonnationalistic
  adjective
• pronationalist
  adjective
• pronationalistic
  adjective
• quasi-nationalistic
  adjective
• seminationalistic
  adjective
• unnationalistic
  adjective
• antinationalistically
  adverb
• nationalistically
  adverb
• nonnationalistically
  adverb
• unnationalistically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• nationalists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of nationalist

First recorded in 1705–15; national + -ist

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Explanation

A nationalist is a person who favors independence for a country. A Scottish nationalist, for example, believes that Scotland should be independent and separate from Great Britain. One kind of nationalist advocates political independence, feeling that her region or state would be better off as a completely separate country from the one that currently controls it. Another sort of nationalist also cares deeply for a country — believing, in fact, that her own country is better than all other countries. This type of nationalist is an extreme patriot, and the term has been around since the 1700s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nationalist nationalists

As a Catholic, Abbott has also managed to keep a discrete distance from the evangelicals who are the backbone of the Christian nationalist movement.

From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2026

The current dispute between China and Taiwan dates to a civil war between the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who retreated to the island in 1949 after being defeated by Mao Zedong's communist fighters.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026

One showed a trail of lights linking the holy Muslim sites of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem accompanied by a nationalist, 19th-century Arabic poem by Egyptian poet Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi:

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

Nine police cases followed - seven against worshippers or prayer organisers, and two against members of the Hindu nationalist group Bajrang Dal.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

Right under Mobutu’s nose, he discovered the writings of the great African nationalist Kwame Nkrumah, and the poetry of a young doctor in Angola, Agostinho Neto, with whom he started up a correspondence.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

In the Baltics, German Freikorps fought Bolshevik revolutionaries and local nationalists in an unsuccessful attempt to establish an independent German-dominated state.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

That could feel like a "momentum changer" to Irish nationalists, according to the BBC's Northern Ireland political editor Enda McClafferty.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Decades of conflict between predominantly Catholic nationalists seeking Irish unity and largely Protestant unionists who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom culminated in the Troubles, which killed more than 3,500 people.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

But some outspoken nationalists in Israel feel that momentum is with them.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

I found that African nationalists and African Communists generally had far more uniting them than dividing them.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

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Related Words

• superpatriot

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