anthropologist
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing anthropologist
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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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:
Until the early 1990s, the police kept a close eye on such funerals for fear of human sacrifices, according to the American anthropologist Janet Hoskins.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Zora Neale Hurston was a student of the anthropologist Franz Boas, and her fieldwork in rural Florida informs this novel of passionate love and tempestuous weather.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
And the one by Forbes’ Randall Lane, self-proclaimed anthropologist of billionaires, about why the world needs them.
From Slate ● May 8, 2026
"The emergence of this behaviour in macaques is both a functional and cultural one, like nutcracking in chimps, except it is driven entirely by proximity to humans," said biological anthropologist Dr Sylvain Lemoine.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
The anthropologist closed his eyes, muttering under his breath.
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
FY: I think that architects and designers have to be anthropologists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
Daniel Aliyu Kwali, president of the FCT Stakeholders' Assembly, noted that some anthropologists and historians say that communities have lived there for over 6,000 years.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 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
How briefly the anthropologists treat the Greek myths is noteworthy.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
