fundamentalist
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of fundamentalist
First recorded in 1920–25; fundamental ( def. ) + -ist ( def. )
Explanation
If you love to talk about what a strict vegan you are, your friends might start calling you a fundamentalist, or a person who sticks very closely to a particular set of principles. The word fundamentalist is used most often to talk about religion. As an adjective, it describes a very strict, literal interpretation of a religious text or set of beliefs, and the noun means a person who holds those firm, often extreme, beliefs. Fundamentalist is a relatively recent term, invented in the 1920s in the United States to describe a Protestant movement during that era.
Vocabulary lists containing fundamentalist
U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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"Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" by Rudolfo Anaya
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U.S. Government - Middle School and High School
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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.
The 1925 “monkey trial” of John Scopes, in which the Tennessee teacher was prosecuted for teaching Darwinism, has been aptly described as a faceoff between fundamentalist religion and evolutionary science.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
“I’ve seen extreme ends of the spectrum, from being enrolled in a fundamentalist Christian school in a small town in Idaho to being a gay playwright living in New York City,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
But he was never a "fundamentalist" of Guardiola's ideas.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
The robust ecosystem that arose in objection to network and cable’s unholiness moved Netflix, Amazon and Fox to claim slices of the underserved fundamentalist market.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
Many of the orphans went to live in fundamentalist madrasas.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
