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:
At the same time, Demis Hassabis transitioned from his previous position as Google DeepMind CEO to a more research-centric role as Alphabet’s chief scientist.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
When his daughter lost a tennis match, the chief AI scientist at startup Resolve AI tried to comfort her by saying the sport is a “hill-climbing process.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hassabis was named to the joint roles of chairman of DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Chilean scientist Yasmin Catricheo, travelled thousands of miles to A Coruña, north-west Spain for the event.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
“I’m a scientist of the sea,” said Irian.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
According to Elisabetta Iorfida, ESA's Swarm Mission Scientist, the Pacific reversal challenges the idea that stable westward circulation dominates the outer core.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
Alphabet’s shares fell 4.1% to $360.13 after the Google parent said veteran Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, a key driver of its AI strategy, was leaving to found a startup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
One math professor, Misha Rudnev at the University of Bristol, told New Scientist: “This is a problem that I didn’t expect to see solved in my lifetime.”
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026
In another blog post on Monday, Altman and Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki said OpenAI is currently building an automated AI researcher.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
I’d been in the middle of dreaming that I’d won the title of All-Time Greatest Scientist after discovering the first wormhole.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
That leaves scientists with relatively little information about how life changed during an enormous span covering about 90 percent of Earth's history.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
"Understanding how they influence electrical behavior gives scientists another tool for designing future technologies using the structure of a material itself."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Flávio’s challenge, rather, is to convince voters in the middle, political scientists say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
What about claims by scientists that videos showing sharks being touched encourage others to take risks and do the same?
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Internationally, scientists were left with only remote monitoring options.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
