materialist

[muh-teer-ee-uh-list]

noun

1. a person who is markedly more concerned with material things than with spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.

2. an adherent of philosophical materialism.

adjective

1. concerned with material things; materialistic.

2. of or relating to philosophical materialism or its adherents.

Other Word Forms

• materialistic adjective
• antimaterialist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of materialist¹

From the New Latin word māteriālista, dating back to 1660–70. See material, -ist

Example Sentences

“Now that’s a Nüwü spiritual way of looking at things, as opposed to this materialist representation of monetary wealth and consumption and greed.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The empirical challenge to the materialist position from terminal lucidity implies that consciousness can exist independently of the brain but isn’t necessarily “evidence for the human soul.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

I became a child of the Enlightenment, a materialist, confident the alternatives amounted to superstition.

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Balancing this is the show’s caustic tut-tutting at materialists for wanting these baubles in the first place.

Read more on Salon

Rastafari reject materialist values and often practice a strict oneness with nature.

Read more on Seattle Times

Related Words

• agnostic 
• cynic 
• dissenter 
• doubter www.thesaurus.com
• pessimist 
• questioner www.thesaurus.com