motorist
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of motorist
Explanation
Motorist is another word for "driver." Motorists need to be aware of pedestrians and stay out of bike lanes. It's especially common to find the word motorists in news stories when they're talking about drivers as a collective group, like all the motorists in downtown Chicago or rural motorists on two-lane highways. Motorist first appeared in the late 19th century, around the time the earliest automobiles did, meaning "motor car driver." An alternative term that quickly became obsolete was motorneer.
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 motorist filed a complaint, and the ensuing internal investigation turned up other cases of gang officers improperly switching off their cameras or otherwise failing to document stops.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
The warning came after one local motorist apparently failed to provide proof that he was eligible for the scheme after changing his car.
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
Minnesota officials have complained that their law enforcement have been excluded from the investigation into the killing of motorist Renee Good by a federal immigration officer on Wednesday.
From Barron's • Jan. 9, 2026
Late on a cold afternoon in March, a motorist in Belleville, Ill., came upon a young boy wandering down a busy street without shoes and wearing only a T-shirt and pajama bottoms.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025
Each time they came to a road, the BFG was over it and away, and no motorist could possibly have seen anything except a quick black shadow flashing overhead.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
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.
