futurist

[ fyoo-cher-ist ]

noun

1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a follower of futurism, especially an artist or writer.
2. Theology. a person who maintains that the prophecies in the Apocalypse will be fulfilled in the future. Compare presentist, preterist.
3. Also fu·tur·ol·o·gist []. a person whose occupation or specialty is the forecasting of future events, conditions, or developments.

adjective

1. futuristic.

Word History and Origins

Origin of futurist¹

From the Italian word futurista, dating back to 1835–45. See future, -ist

Example Sentences

For decades, observers in the tech and gaming sectors have been looking forward to this incipient virtual world — first as starry-eyed futurists, then as the niche-obsessed nerds exploring early metaverse platforms such as Second Life.

From Digiday

There’s an extent to which he’s a great prognosticator, a great futurist.

From Time

Knowing that my business sense, fashion sense, and trained eye has gotten me to where I am today, I am very grateful for that, and I think Jerome today is a futurist.

From Essence.com

The most garrulous entry is Judy Lichtman’s retro-futurist treatment of Georg Baselitz’s 1961-1962 “Pandemonium Manifestos,” its words piled up with Dadaist swagger.

From Washington Post

Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil says it will be just a matter of a few decades.

From Nautilus

As someone who rejects that view, play futurist for a second: What kind of technologies could displace the Internet?

From The Daily Beast

The documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer opens with this quote by the futurist Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

From The Daily Beast

The best way to do this, he argues, is through an “adhocracy,” a term he borrows from the writer and futurist Alvin Toffler.

From The Daily Beast

James P. Othmer is the author of ADLAND: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel THE FUTURIST.

From The Daily Beast

James P. Othmer is the author of ADLAND: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet and the novel The Futurist.

From The Daily Beast

We talked of the possibilities of next year's Salons and disagreed on the subject of futurist painting.

From Project Gutenberg

Why should you expect in him a super-instinct towards futurist sociology?

From Project Gutenberg

What could be more futurist than the coal black sky under which they so contentedly graze?

From Project Gutenberg

The futurist devotees were indignant, but there were enough who were stung by faint suspicion to investigate.

From Project Gutenberg

There is the futurist, post-impressionist poseur who more than half believes in his own pose.

From Project Gutenberg