modernist

American  

[mod-er-nist] / ˈmɒd ər nɪst /

noun

• modernists
  plural

1. a person who follows or favors modern ways, tendencies, etc.

2. a person who advocates the study of modern subjects in preference to ancient classics.

3. an adherent of modernism in theological questions.

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adjective

1. of modernists or modernism.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antimodernist
  noun
• hypermodernist
  noun
• promodernist
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• modernists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of modernist

First recorded in 1580–90; modern + -ist

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Explanation

An artist who belonged to a 19th- and 20th-century art movement that rejected old ideas and styles was called a modernist. Virginia Woolf is one example of a modernist writer. The philosophy behind modernist art and writing was basically that the old Victorian ways of expressing artistic vision weren't keeping up with the changes in society. Modern industry, the growth of cities, and reactions to World War I were all factors that affected modernists' break with the old style. Modernist painters included the Impressionists (like Manet and Monet). Philosopher Immanuel Kant, psychologist Sigmund Freud, and composer Arnold Schoenberg are all also considered to be modernists.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

modernist modernists

In 1969, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum opened here, a long, low modernist building in a woodland park, housing a stellar collection of antiquities, and Islamic, Asian and European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Thanks to a sensitive renovation, not only has the institution’s infrastructure been updated but its impressive modernist building and collection of antiquities and Islamic, Asian and European art shine anew.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Milton and Lyman Stewart were religious zealots who were horrified by the encroachment of modernist ideas on society.

From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026

The grass frames the foreground, and Freeman is depicted in a fuchsia dress inside a linear, glass-fronted modernist home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

He lived alone, in a nondescript apartment near his lab in London, and in a spare, white modernist cottage that he had built for himself in Brighton.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Scott Dunn Orchestra debuted last May with a whole concert devoted to Henry Mancini, followed in November by a showcase of Hollywood’s midcentury modernists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

Some modernists were unaware that they lived under this climate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

While top sales often feature established modernists like Husain, Souza, Gaitonde, and Raza, auctioneers say rising top prices lift demand and values for previously overlooked artists as well.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025

Back then, the trial was considered an argument between fundamentalists and modernists — but there was debate.

From Salon ● May 30, 2023

A scrupulous honesty in admitting the probable facts of history, and a fresh upwelling of mystical experience, these are the motives, creditable to any spiritual man, that have made modernists of so many.

From Winds Of Doctrine Studies in Contemporary Opinion by George Santayana

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