optimist
Americannoun
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optimists
plural
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an optimistic person.
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a person who holds the belief or the doctrine of optimism.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of optimist
First recorded in 1760–70; from French optimiste, from Latin optim(um) ( see optimum) + French -iste -ist
Explanation
An optimist is someone who always sees the bright side of any situation — a trait that can be either encouraging or annoying, depending on your frame of mind. Winston Churchill once said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” When you think about the problems in the world, it might sometimes be difficult to remain an optimist. Yet some people just naturally look for the silver lining, like Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh stories who, when admitting that it's still snowing and freezing, remarks, "However, we haven't had an earthquake lately." Now that's an optimist!
Vocabulary lists containing optimist
Fish in a Tree
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100 SAT words Beginning with "O"
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Home of the Brave
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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:
The optimist in me loves the idea that a food bank provides financial education, even if it was a prerequisite to avail of its services.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
Odysseus may have held out hope throughout years of setbacks, obstacles and traps laid by vengeful deities, but the man who plays him on the big screen is no optimist.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
But what type of fan are you - a die-hard enthusiast analysing all the tactics, a bag of nerves who watches from behind the sofa or an eternal optimist happy to go with the flow?
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
Ever the optimist, Byford touts the quality of Chakrabarti’s design and Cipriano’s financial plans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
I asked her, “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?”
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
A new closed-end fund carrying Dan Ives’ name seizes on the analyst’s reputation as one of Wall Street’s most visible tech and AI optimists.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
But there are optimists too, such as a man who told us his last name was Zhang, standing alongside potato pickers in a field near the data centres.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
AI optimists are confident the technology is just being tested and monitored enough that humans can prevent it from consistently causing catastrophes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Hopefully, I don’t sound as naive as those early internet optimists, who thought new shifts would usher in a golden age of humanity.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
The short answer to that second question was: the optimists.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
