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Showing results for frontiersman. Search instead for frontierism.
Synonyms

frontiersman

American  
[fruhn-teerz-muhn, fron-, fruhn-teerz-] / frʌnˈtɪərz mən, frɒn-, ˈfrʌn tɪərz- /

noun

  • frontiersmen
    plural
  1. a person, especially a man, who lives on the frontier, especially in sparsely settled regions.


frontiersman British  
/ ˈfrʌntɪəzmən, frʌnˈtɪəz- /

noun

  1. (formerly) a man living on a frontier, esp in a newly pioneered territory of the US

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of frontiersman

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; frontier ( def. ) + 's 1 + -man


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:

A New England frontiersman and ‘49er called “Grizzly Adams” — a name we likely know from a 1970s television show — tamed and trained a couple of young grizzlies as his companions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

The frontiersman poet Joaquin Miller was assigned to write about a week spent on Wall Street.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2025

In 1955, the frontiersman Davy Crockett became the most famous man in America, more than a century after his death at the Alamo.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023

On television, Ames was likely best known for his role as Mingo, the Oxford-educated Native American in the 1960s adventure series “Daniel Boone” that starred Fess Parker as the famous frontiersman.

From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2023

No true frontiersman would ever stoop to use it.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

Factory workers, farmers, gold diggers, frontiersmen flocked to the US with the belief that they could create a new identity - an "American" - unshackled from the class systems of Europe.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

For their portrayers, John Magaro and Orion Lee, respectively, that meant living like frontiersmen and trusting the vision of their acclaimed director.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2021

Her characters were frequently hardscrabble frontiersmen with poetic souls, loggers and fishermen and truck drivers who “eat and drink like Henry VIII,” as she put it.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 21, 2019

Federalists surely groaned at such bombast but pugnacious frontiersmen cheered it.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

Smith was the last of the true frontiersmen; Howard was paving Smith’s West under the urgent wheels of his automobiles.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

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