noun
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a shop selling medicines, cosmetics, etc
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a qualified dispenser of prescribed medicines
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a person studying, trained in, or engaged in chemistry
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an obsolete word for alchemist
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of chemist
First recorded in 1555–65; from Greek chēm(ía) (also chēmeía, chymeía ) “art of alloying metals; alchemy” + -ist; replacing chymist, from Medieval Latin alchimista; see alchemist ( def. )
Explanation
A scientist who studies the elements that make up all matter is a chemist. If you enjoy doing experiments that involve mixing substances in test tubes, you'd probably love being a chemist. Chemists practice the science of chemistry, which examines the properties that make up everything in the universe. These working scientists examine the tiniest particles of substances, the atoms and molecules that form the earth, the oceans, and even you, yourself. Chemists also study how elements interact with each other and form new substances; we have chemists to thank for inventing penicillin, plastic, and artificial sweeteners, among many other things.
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:
Their company included the painter Allan Ramsay, the historian William Robertson, the chemist Joseph Black and the geologist James Hutton among many gifted others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Ramón Pagán, a cosmetic chemist and independent consultant based in New York City, sees another force helping drive tallow’s popularity: branding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Gallium was discovered in 1875 by French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Humphrys described working three part-time jobs while at school, including a morning paper round, being a messenger for a chemist and growing food in an allotment.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
His father was there, his father’s brother, a chemist, and another friend—all up that early, waiting.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Now, chemists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a method for creating nanocrystals from metal nitrides, a technologically important group of materials that had resisted conventional nanocrystal synthesis.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
By changing how chemists think about where and when reaction selectivity is determined, the method could expand the range of molecules that can be connected through electron-transfer chemistry.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
So there was an overnight operation of chemists and first responders sent in to try to get that done, which was attempted even though it put them “in harm’s way,” Covey said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
Past directors have included physicists, chemists and computer scientists.
From Salon ● May 7, 2026
For most of us, the periodic table is a thing of beauty in the abstract, but for chemists it established an immediate orderliness and clarity that can hardly be overstated.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
