symbolist

American  

[sim-buh-list] / ˈsɪm bə lɪst /

noun

1. a person who uses symbols or symbolism.

2. a person versed in the study or interpretation of symbols.

3. Literature.

   1. a writer who seeks to express or evoke emotions, ideas, etc., by stressing the symbolic value of language, to which is ascribed a capacity for communicating otherwise inexpressible visions of reality.

   2. (usually initial capital letter) a member of a group of chiefly French and Belgian poets of the latter part of the 19th century who sought to evoke aesthetic emotions by emphasizing the associative character of verbal, often private, images or by using synesthetic devices, as vowel sounds, presumably evocative of color.

4. Fine Arts.

   1. an artist who seeks to symbolize or suggest ideas or emotions by the objects represented, the colors used, etc.

   2. (usually initial capital letter) a member of a group of late 19th-century artists who rejected realism and sought to express subjective visions rather than objective reality through the use of evocative images.

5. (often initial capital letter) a person who rejects the doctrine of transubstantiation and views the Eucharist symbolically.

6. a person who favors the use of symbols in religious services.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to symbolists or symbolism.

symbolist British  

/ ˈsɪmbəlɪst /

noun

1. a person who uses or can interpret symbols, esp as a means to revealing aspects of truth and reality

2. an artist or writer who practises symbolism in his work

3. (usually capital) a writer associated with the symbolist movement

4. (often capital) an artist associated with the movement of symbolism

5. Christian theol a person who rejects any interpretation of the Eucharist that suggests that Christ is really present in it, and who maintains that the bread and wine are only symbols of his body and blood

---

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characterizing symbolism or symbolists

Other Word Forms

• symbolistic adjective
• symbolistically adverb

Etymology

Origin of symbolist

First recorded in 1575–85; symbol + -ist

Example Sentences

Ebi Kohlbacher is an expert on the great Austrian symbolist artist and knew some Klimt paintings had been lost.

From Barron's • Nov. 13, 2025

The poetic, light-filled merger of such realist and symbolist tendencies was not uncommon in European and American art of the period.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2023

It derives from a work by the symbolist poet Paul Valéry that Rhee recites in French at the end of what she calls her “dance poem.”

From New York Times • Oct. 13, 2022

He read works by French symbolist poets like Arthur Rimbaud and American beat writers like Jack Kerouac.

From BBC • May 23, 2021

But why hide 'Jason Taylor' under an inaccessible symbolist and a Latin American revolutionary?”

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell