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• nonconformist
  nonconformist

  noun

  a person who refuses to conform, as to established customs, attitudes, or ideas.
• Nonconformist
  Nonconformist

  noun

  a member of a Protestant denomination that dissents from an Established Church, esp the Church of England

nonconformist

American  

[non-kuhn-fawr-mist] / ˌnɒn kənˈfɔr mɪst /

noun

• nonconformists
  plural

1. a person who refuses to conform, as to established customs, attitudes, or ideas.

   Synonyms:

   loner, individualist, dissident, dissenter

2. (often initial capital letter) a Protestant in England who is not a member of the Church of England; dissenter.

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Nonconformist ¹ British  

/ ˌnɒnkənˈfɔːmɪst /

noun

1. a member of a Protestant denomination that dissents from an Established Church, esp the Church of England

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or denoting Nonconformists

nonconformist ² British  

/ ˌnɒnkənˈfɔːmɪst /

noun

1. a person who does not conform to generally accepted patterns of behaviour or thought

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adjective

1. of or characterized by behaviour that does not conform to generally accepted patterns

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Nonconformity
  noun
• nonconformism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• nonconformists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of nonconformist

First recorded in 1610–20; non- + conformist

Explanation

A nonconformist is someone who doesn’t conform to other people’s ideas of how things should be. Activists, artists, street performers, your wacky uncle Marvin — anyone who marches to the beat of a different drummer is a nonconformist. Nonconformist is one of those words that has both a noun and an adjective form. The noun describes someone who acts apart from the masses, and the adjective describes people or other things that have those same nonconformist qualities. If your actions mark you as a nonconformist, chances are you'll take a nonconformist approach when it comes to planning your next vacation.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nonconformist Nonconformist nonconformists

Elon Musk has made a career, and billions of dollars, out of being a nonconformist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 18, 2026

But Tyler, ever the nonconformist, released his eighth studio album at 06:00 EST on Monday, three days after the week's chart tracking began.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2024

A strong socialist bent in politics, nonconformist in religion, working class.

From Salon ● May 27, 2024

In Salar Abdoh’s Tehran, a city more populous than New York City, the vagaries of the human heart create a surprisingly unbridled and nonconformist tableau against a backdrop most Westerners view as monolithic, repressive, theocratic.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2023

There always existed King’s College, opulently nonconformist and clearly capable of absorbing him without any loss of his or its character.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson

World War One, combined with Nonconformist disapproval of drink, provided a "convenient excuse" to close a few down but the pubs were still thriving late into the 20th Century.

From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023

Nonconformist strands of hair attach to her mouth at a staff meeting where she suggests that no true Texan would take the kind of “cowboy-cation” the show plans to feature.

From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2022

In an article on "Hymns in a Man's Life," Lawrence says the "battle-cry of a stout soul" he hears and admires in English Nonconformist hymns is "far, far from any militarism or gun-fighting."

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2021

Since James Mason’s film, the abandoned synagogue, which was a Nonconformist chapel in the 18th and 19th centuries, has become a mosque.

From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2014

Thornton Church is a little episcopal chapel-of-ease, rich in Nonconformist monuments, as of Accepted Lister, and his friend Dr. Hale.”—Mrs.

From Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature by Charles W. Bardsley

Change-inducing nonconformists are out there on the edge of progress, pushing that boulder up the hill, sweating and usually being called oddballs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 18, 2026

At the same time, the conception of Poe the writer seems to tap into a cultural affection for outsiders, nonconformists and underdogs who ultimately prove their worth.

From Salon ● Jan. 21, 2023

And yet, being complicated nonconformists, they weren’t uniformly of the left.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2022

Mo Willems’s picture books often feature committed nonconformists — not the human kind, but the animal variety.

From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2022

And as to the great majority of nonconformists, it is vain to deny that they were very different men from Baxter, and Flavel, and Gurnall, and Traill.

From A Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield by John Charles Ryle

Related Words

• dissenter
• dissident
• free spirit
• individualist
• maverick