environmentalist
Americannoun
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an expert on environmental problems.
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any person who advocates or works to protect the air, water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.
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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 ).
noun
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an adherent of environmentalism
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a person who is concerned with the maintenance of ecological balance and the conservation of the environment
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a person concerned with issues that affect the environment, such as pollution
Other Word Forms
- antienvironmentalist noun
- environmentalism noun
Etymology
Origin of environmentalist
First recorded in 1915–20; environmental ( def. ) + -ist
Compare meaning
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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.
He said he was an "environmentalist" concerned about "many things".
From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026
The British monarch, a lifelong environmentalist who has rallied global leaders and institutions to the cause, called for greater mitigation efforts "as fast as we can".
From Barron's • Jan. 28, 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
Paul Kingsnorth, the British journalist, novelist and sometime radical environmentalist, has recently converted to Orthodox Christianity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 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
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.
