anthropologist

American  

[an-thruh-pol-uh-jist] / ˌæn θrəˈpɒl ə dʒɪst /

noun

anthropologists plural

1. a person who specializes in anthropology.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• anthropologists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of anthropologist

First recorded in 1790–1800; anthropolog(y) + -ist

Explanation

If you like to go people watching and enjoy studying the ways that humans behave, then you might be a future anthropologist. Anthropologists are people that practice anthropology, which is the study of humanity. Basically they want to figure out what makes humans human. An anthropologist might be interested in everything from the traditions of a tribe on a remote island to the culture of an urban community and everything in between. Biological anthropologists spend their time with fossils and artifacts trying to figure out how early humans might have behaved and what makes us different from other primates.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anthropologist anthropologists

Melissa Vogel, a business anthropologist formerly of Clemson University, said the phenomenon also reflects deeper cultural patterns that blend Catholic imagery with indigenous traditions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

And the one by Forbes’ Randall Lane, self-proclaimed anthropologist of billionaires, about why the world needs them.

From Slate ● May 8, 2026

Sandel, an anthropologist from the University of Texas in the US, and co-director of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, says chimpanzees are "very territorial", and have "hostile interactions with those from other groups".

From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026

Gibson’s character C Hemingway on Fox’s “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” is also trans, something he discloses at work as a forensic anthropologist reconstructing the faces of people disappeared.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026

Sierra was just some kid from around the way; why was a Columbia librarian wasting so much time to dig up papers on some vanished anthropologist for her?

From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older

In recent decades, many biologists and anthropologists have come to view Homo sapiens as what’s called a “cooperative breeder.”

From Slate ● May 10, 2026

But the heart of the film is Boyes’ quixotic search, aided by trackers and anthropologists, and eventually, a regional king.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026

Once the zeal of republican liberty cooled, 19th-century universities provided homes to such scientists of sacrifice as ethnographers, philologists, sociologists, historians and anthropologists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

A new study by anthropologists now presents strong evidence that Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a species first identified in the early 2000s, was capable of upright walking.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 3, 2026

Anthropologists formerly idealized band and tribal societies as gentle and nonviolent, because visiting anthropologists observed no murder in a band of 25 people in the course of a three-year study.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond