journalist
Americannoun
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journalists
plural
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a person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism.
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a person who keeps a journal, diary, or other record of daily events.
noun
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a person whose occupation is journalism
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a person who keeps a journal
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of journalist
Explanation
A journalist is a person whose job involves writing nonfiction stories for newspapers, magazines, or online news sites. If you are reading or hearing a news story, you have a journalist to thank for providing that story. One type of journalist is a reporter, who researches topics and interviews people before writing a story or producing a piece for TV. Editors, photographers, and columnists can also be described as journalists, particularly if they work for a newspaper. Another kind of journalist is a person who regularly writes in a journal or diary. Journalist comes from the Old French jornel, "day" or "day's work," which became journal, "daily publication."
Vocabulary lists containing journalist
Journalism
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"Hip-Hop as Culture" and "I Am Somebody"
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for April 1–April 7, 2023
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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.
See Examples For:
It also stacks an additional $15,000 credit for each new hire, to incentivize expanding journalist head counts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Several flights were cancelled on Sunday and an AFP journalist saw hundreds of travellers stuck at the airport, with local media reporting that many were forced to spend the night there.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
He offered no similar ambiguity about what he believed should happen when a journalist characterized that record differently.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
I have lived and worked with multiple sclerosis for 26 years, almost as long as I have been a BBC Scotland journalist, but recently I have been absent from the airwaves.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
I was in Haiti as a journalist, writing about the presence of twenty thousand American soldiers there.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
‘Extreme weather” sounds like a scientific term and is used routinely by government agencies, journalists and activists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Pearce formerly worked as a reporter at The Times, and served as president of Media Guild of the West, the union that represents Times journalists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
She told me she avoided the news, and definitely did not speak to journalists.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
They are supposed to have the same rights to ask questions and seek information as commercial journalists.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
The journalists also ask if I am afraid.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
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.
