realist

American  

[ree-uh-list] / ˈri ə lɪst /

noun

1. a person who tends to view or represent things as they really are.

2. an artist or a writer whose work is characterized by realism.

3. Philosophy. an adherent of realism.

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adjective

1. of or relating to realism or to a person who embodies its principles or practices.

   the realist approach to social ills;

   realist paintings.

realist British  

/ ˈrɪəlɪst /

noun

1. a person who is aware of and accepts the physical universe, events, etc, as they are; pragmatist

2. an artist or writer who seeks to represent the familiar or typical in real life rather than an idealized, formalized, or romantic interpretation

3. philosophy a person who accepts realism

4. (modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of realism or realists in the arts, philosophy, etc

   a realist school

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Other Word Forms

• antirealist
  noun
• hyperrealist
  noun
• nonrealist
  noun
• prorealist
  adjective
• ultrarealist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of realist

First recorded in 1595–1605; real ¹ + -ist; compare French réaliste

Explanation

Some may say you never expect good things to happen, but maybe you’re just a realist, a person who uses facts and past events, rather than hopeful feelings and wishes, to predict the future. In art, Realist painters started a movement by depicting the world around them as it actually appeared, rather than painting flattering portraits of unattractive people and scenes too good to be true. You don't have to be an artist to be a realist — just consider limitations and anticipate that things that can go wrong will go wrong. The downside? Realists don't get to dream of the great things that could happen if everything goes right.

Example Sentences

"Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel", opens on Thursday and runs until June 27.

From Barron's • Feb. 18, 2026

Towering over the square is the Palace of Culture, the Socialist Realist high-rise building "gifted" to the city in the 1950s by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

From Reuters • Aug. 18, 2023

His best friend at the time was Nelson Shanks, the Classical Realist portrait painter, with whom he visited museums throughout Europe.

From New York Times • May 25, 2023

One, in “Histories,” is a group of 11 simple works on paper made in the 1950s and after in a Social Realist style.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2023

This fact, while leaving him a Realist of the nobler type, at once shuts him off from community with his friends Zola and the Goncourts, and saves him from any stain of the "sable streams."

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George