economist
Americannoun
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a specialist in economics
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archaic a person who advocates or practises frugality
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of economist
Explanation
The word economist is close to economics, which is the science of money. An economist is a person who practices that science. If your economics course isn't being taught by an economist, the chances are you should switch sections. In the 16th century, the word was used to describe the person who managed the household, which certainly explains courses in "home economics." But the current meaning of economist — a person who studies the flow of cash and credit between people, institutions, banks, etc. — first developed during the 18th century. Perhaps that's no surprise either, as that's when the global economy truly became, well, global.
Vocabulary lists containing economist
Richard Nixon's "Checkers" Speech (1952)
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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The Executive Branch: The Presidency and Vice Presidency
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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:
"Even the most committed dove would struggle to find anything in the August employment report to justify keeping interest rates unchanged," said Stephen Brown, chief North America economist at Capital Economics.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
"Reforms are not clearly defined in the agreement document. Some ambiguity remains", Abdoulaye Ndiaye, a Senegalese economist at New York University, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
“We don’t expect any real mortgage rate relief this fall,” Jiayi Xu, a senior economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
As a libertarian economist, he is an admirer of Thatcher.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
The typical economist believes the world has not yet invented a problem that he cannot fix if given a free hand to design the proper incentive scheme.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Japan’s second-quarter economic growth is likely to be revised higher Tuesday after capital spending proved stronger than initially estimated, economists say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
ING economists expect exports to rise 24% from a year earlier and imports to increase 32%, producing a trade surplus of $107.0 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The IMF loan programme, economists say, provides a catalyst for financing from other institutions such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, private investors and others.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Leading business experts and economists say that without Australia's data centre boom over the last couple of years, the country would likely have headed into a recession.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Many, perhaps most, economists go further and believe that good institutions are overwhelmingly the most important explanation.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
