scientist
noun
scientist
American
[sahy-uhn-tist]
/ ˈsaɪ ən tɪst /
noun
-
scientists
plural
Scientist
1
British
/ ˈsaɪəntɪst /
noun
-
Christian Science Christ as supreme spiritual healer
-
short for Christian Scientist See Christian Scientist
scientist
2
British
/ ˈsaɪəntɪst /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of scientist
Explanation
A scientist is a person with some kind of knowledge or expertise in any of the sciences, like biology or chemistry. See that guy in the white lab coat wearing pocket protectors and experimenting with chemicals? He’s definitely a scientist. The word science comes from the Latin, scientia, which means "knowledge." The sciences are branches of knowledge about the world that derive from repeated experiments. A scientist is any person with an interest in the sciences, from amateurs to professionals. A curious high school student interested in seeing what happens when he slips vinegar into his best friend's can of soda could be considered a kind of scientist!
Vocabulary lists containing scientist
Occupations
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"Hitching a Ride"
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 4
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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.
See Examples For:
Well, you know, you start with a scientist who wants to do something big and important.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
The FDA approval “will change how the industry views what is potentially druggable,” Yale scientist Craig Crews, founder of Arvinas, said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Is she the sweet-natured scientist, the only version of her he’s ever met, or a femme fatale who may still be running a scam?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Ariella Hanker, 44, a cancer research scientist in Dallas, was born in Israel to American parents.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
A young physicist named Edward Teller sat on a train with a fellow scientist, Otto Frisch.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Scientist have projected for years that climate change would lead to fewer Santa Anas by the end of the century.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
"The cyber defence capabilities will enable enterprises and governments to defend themselves against threat actors that are jailbreaking closed models to perform cyberattacks," Mistral's Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample said in the statement.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
A former editor at New Scientist, Mr. Bond explores the many ways in which animals have shaped human psychology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The PAC had received a $150,000 donation from a newly created LLC with a typo in its name: the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers, with no S at the end of “Scientist.”
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Ten...nine...eight...I remembered my Short-Circuit Scientist moment with Thomas and the exploding grapes.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
This unusually extensive record allowed scientists to investigate how thinking and memory changed over decades.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
This technique helps scientists make sense of large, complicated datasets by identifying the strongest patterns within them.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
When scientists examined brain tissue collected after death from a subset of participants, they discovered a striking pattern.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
By analyzing that light from different angles, scientists can investigate the atmosphere's composition and determine how far it extends at different locations around the planet.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Some scientists even tried on a slice of land around the volcano.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
