botanist
Americannoun
-
botanists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of botanist
1675–85; botan ( ism ) botany (< Greek botanismós, equivalent to botán ( ē ) plant + -ismos -ism ) + -ist
Explanation
Use the noun botanist to describe a biologist whose specialty is plants — the way they grow, the differences between them, and everything else that has to do with plant science. The earliest botanists, in the 1500s, began a system of classifying plants scientifically, while modern botanists study the DNA of plants as well as their uses in medicine and nutrition. The root word is botanic, from the Greek botanikos, "of herbs."
Vocabulary lists containing botanist
Because of Mr. Terupt
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Wishtree
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"The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller, List 1
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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:
In 1901 an American botanist and travel writer, Elizabeth Taylor, traveled two hours by rowboat to reach the island and found herself stranded by a storm for 16 days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
White lilies are said to represent peace and are a traditional choice for acts of remembrance in the UK, says botanist James Wong of BBC Gardeners' Question Time.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Torrey pines, named after 19th century botanist John Torrey, grow naturally only on Santa Rosa Island and in Torrey Pine State Park in San Diego.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Among the millions of observations shared on the platform, the photos eventually caught the attention of botanist Anthony Bean from the Queensland Herbarium.
From Science Daily ● May 18, 2026
"Young man," Enrico Fermi replied when a student asked him the name of a particular particle, "if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist."
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
This created a “competition for botanical immortality,” as dubiously qualified botanists described and named plants for personal glory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
In 2013, von Konrat led a team of botanists and volunteers to survey the region, cataloging grasses, trees, and mosses in search of a location that matched the plant material found on the shoes.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 1, 2026
In the 19th and early 20th Centuries Swedish explorers, ethnographers and botanists would pay to travel on British ships to Cape Town and then make their way inland by rail and foot.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
Calling squash a fruit wears me out a little, but, okay botanists, with your genus-species-variety nomenclature, I concede: by definition, squash is indeed a fruit.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
The meddling botanists have grudgingly admitted I did a good job.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
