environmentalist

American  

[en-vahy-ruhn-men-tl-ist, -vahy-ern-] / ɛnˌvaɪ rənˈmɛn tl ɪst, -ˌvaɪ ərn- /

noun

1. an expert on environmental problems.

2. any person who advocates or works to protect the air, water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.

3. a person who believes that differences between individuals or groups, especially in moral and intellectual attributes, are predominantly determined by environmental factors, as surroundings, upbringing, or experience (hereditarian ).

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environmentalist British  

/ ɪnˌvaɪrənˈmɛntəlɪst /

noun

1. an adherent of environmentalism

2. a person who is concerned with the maintenance of ecological balance and the conservation of the environment

3. a person concerned with issues that affect the environment, such as pollution

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Other Word Forms

• antienvironmentalist noun
• environmentalism noun

Etymology

Origin of environmentalist

First recorded in 1915–20; environmental ( def. ) + -ist

Compare meaning

How does environmentalist compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• conservationist vs. environmentalist

Explanation

If you're a true environmentalist, you care deeply enough about the natural world to make protecting it a real priority. You may even have made it your life's work. These days, there's no shortage of work for the world's environmentalists. What with climate change, oil spills, gas drilling, deforestation, and species decline (just to name a few), there's almost no time to breathe. Show me an environmentalist with nothing to do, and I'll show you someone who isn't paying attention. Environmentalists — people who work to protect the environment — often work hand in hand with conservationists, whose job is to protect and maintain as much of the natural world as possible.

Example Sentences

He said he was an "environmentalist" concerned about "many things".

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026

There was no feminist or environmentalist movement as we now understand them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026

The contested financial lifeline comes weeks after Budapest's environmentalist mayor Gergely Karacsony warned the city of 1.6 million faces the threat of insolvency.

From Barron's • Dec. 17, 2025

The offices of several environmentalist groups were ransacked in the Charente-Maritime department.

From BBC • Dec. 12, 2025

This soundscape, as acoustic environmentalist R. Murray Schafer conceived it, concerns what those sounds tell us about who we are and the time in which we live.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

Related Words

• ecologist