columnist
Americannoun
-
columnists
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of columnist
Explanation
A columnist writes regularly for a newspaper or magazine, usually expressing opinions or commentary. A columnist might write an article endorsing a candidate for president one week, and a story about a terrible local fire the next week. If you get a job as a newspaper columnist, you'll be expected to publish on a regular basis, maybe once or twice a week. An advice columnist answers letters that ask for help with personal problems and dilemmas, and a political columnist comments on various current events and political figures. The word columnist comes from a newspaper column, which got that name from the "vertical division of a page" meaning.
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:
With the fall festivals in the books, awards columnist Glenn Whipp surveys the landscape and offers his first bold prediction of the 10 best picture nominees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
After three orderly decades as a journalist and gossip columnist, Jeannette Walls delivered a shock to readers with this account of her chaotic upbringing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Our baseball writer Jared Diamond and columnist Jason Gay have been wrestling with this conundrum for months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
“Ditka was proud and headstrong,” wrote former Times sports columnist Mike Downey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
“Red is not one of our great riders, but the only word he knows is yes,” wrote a columnist who didn’t know of Pollard’s blindness.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Times columnists Lorraine Ali, Gustavo Arellano and Steve Lopez weigh in on the highlights and lowlights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
He manages an award-winning team of columnists and reporters who cover technology in our lives and our businesses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
While there were established columnists like Walter Winchell, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, most articles in these magazines either went unbylined or were written under pseudonyms.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
Fill out the MarketWatch Retirement Questionnaire and one of our columnists might answer your question.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Several columnists accused him of lacking the courage and sportsmanship to truly test his horse.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
