botanist
Americannoun
-
botanists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of botanist
1675–85; botan ( ism ) botany (< Greek botanismós, equivalent to botán ( ē ) plant + -ismos -ism ) + -ist
Explanation
Use the noun botanist to describe a biologist whose specialty is plants — the way they grow, the differences between them, and everything else that has to do with plant science. The earliest botanists, in the 1500s, began a system of classifying plants scientifically, while modern botanists study the DNA of plants as well as their uses in medicine and nutrition. The root word is botanic, from the Greek botanikos, "of herbs."
Vocabulary lists containing botanist
Because of Mr. Terupt
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Wishtree
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"The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller, List 1
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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:
He was in need of a botanist and approached Reinhold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The director of conservation at the California Botanic Garden, botanist Naomi Fraga, said a superbloom is typically classified as a regional phenomenon where you see fields of wildflowers stretching across hundreds of thousands of acres.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026
Baimedov, who has become an amateur botanist, tends to about 15,000 saplings, which are aimed at forming a green wall against the sand.
From Barron's ● Dec. 18, 2025
Its Japanese name honors Jukichi Shiraga, a botanist from Niimi City who discovered the plant.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2025
This ancient refuse became ammunition in a long-running academic battle between Harvard botanist Paul C. Mangelsdorf and George Beadle, a geneticist who worked at Stanford, Caltech, and the University of Chicago.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
This created a “competition for botanical immortality,” as dubiously qualified botanists described and named plants for personal glory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
The public will be able to report suspected pink daffodils to the RHS by sending in photographs, which will be sent to expert botanists to examine.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
In 2013, von Konrat led a team of botanists and volunteers to survey the region, cataloging grasses, trees, and mosses in search of a location that matched the plant material found on the shoes.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 1, 2026
Calling squash a fruit wears me out a little, but, okay botanists, with your genus-species-variety nomenclature, I concede: by definition, squash is indeed a fruit.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
They corresponded with botanists throughout the Colonies, sending them bulbs and shoots when illustrations would not do.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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.
