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:
Gallium was discovered in 1875 by French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Meanwhile people without family abroad to send them dollars or order food for them online live an increasingly precarious existence, like Maritza Gomez, a 62-year-old chemist.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 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
In November 2019, soil engineer Tim Neiligan, a former FBI chemist, began researching how bodies decompose in soil.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026
This persisted for 10 months in one; the other, a young woman chemist, was more severely affected, with paralysis in both legs and some involvement of the hands and arms.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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
"When making tools for chemists, the user interface matters a lot, and previous tools relied on cumbersome filters and rules," says Andres M Bran, the first author of the Synthegy paper published in Matter.
From Science Daily ● May 5, 2026
In this approach, chemists begin with the final molecule they want and work backward to figure out simpler starting materials and possible reaction routes.
From Science Daily ● May 5, 2026
They succeeded so well that their spurious product responded to the appropriate chemical tests and deceived the government chemists.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
