noun
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a person filled with or motivated by enthusiasm; fanatic
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archaic a religious visionary, esp one whose zeal for religion is extravagant or unbalanced
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of enthusiast
First recorded in 1600–10; from Greek enthousiastḗs “inspired person, possessed person,” from enthousí(a) “possession by a god” ( see enthusiasm) + -astēs -ast ( def. ) (variant of -istēs -ist after i )
Explanation
When you're an enthusiast, you're all jazzed up about a person or cause. A sports enthusiast is someone who is really passionate and excited about sports. Enthusiast comes from the Greek enthousiastēs, meaning "person inspired by a god." While it doesn't retain those same religious connotations today, an enthusiast is someone who is inspired by a cause or person. A candidate running for office will have a group of enthusiasts working doggedly on his campaign. Often your mother is your biggest enthusiast or supporter. Non-profit organizations are always looking for enthusiasts who can make donations and become patrons of their organization.
Vocabulary lists containing enthusiast
This Week In Culture: November 9–15, 2019
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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:
During the process, volunteers have contributed to the project as well as Lego enthusiast Steph Porter and her husband who helped plan and design it.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
Dave Graham, a 37-year-old IT worker and space enthusiast, was unable to request IPO shares through his brokerage account due to his Canadian residency.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
Chaired and controlled by Bitcoin enthusiast Michael Saylor, Strategy holds 847,000 coins, or about 4% of the total supply of the cryptocurrency.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
Nighttime photography enthusiast Tim Reaves scouts out potential vantage points before the sun goes down to ensure he can get the best shot possible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
“Give them to your son. You’ve got birthdays and Christmases taken care of for a couple of years with all this. It’s good stuff any motorcycle enthusiast would love.”
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
In the weeks that L.A. has hosted the World Cup, international soccer enthusiasts have flocked to big brands from the area, often in large groups wearing their countries’ jerseys.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
Now, the value of old Land Rovers is rocketing as a new generation of enthusiasts falls in love with this simple off-roader.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
That doesn’t mean, however, that the gaming enthusiasts who’ve made such an uproar online are to be easily dismissed, or that they’re wrong about why this is a misguided business move in the long term.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
The number of social-media groups and threads predicated on the opinion that Bowlero/Lucky Strike absolutely sucks testifies to the number of both serious bowlers and casual enthusiasts who see the corporation as an invasive rot.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
“Some of the cosmic ray enthusiasts are very likely to urge that nature has furnished us with particles of extremely high energies,” he observed.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
