noun
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a person who supports pacifism
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a person who refuses military service
adjective
Other Word Forms
- antipacifist noun
- nonpacifist noun
- propacifist noun
- semipacifist adjective
- unpacifist adjective
Etymology
Origin of pacifist
From the French word pacifiste, dating back to 1905–10. See pacific, -ist
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.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi plans to boost Japan’s defense spending and revise its pacifist constitution.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026
Sending its Self-Defense Forces abroad is politically sensitive in officially pacifist Japan, as many voters support the US-imposed, war-renouncing 1947 constitution.
From Barron's • Mar. 16, 2026
Despite him being a vocal pacifist and critic of actions by major nations that he perceived as harmful, there were also those who felt he should have been more progressive.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2025
Carter was a peacemaker but not a pacifist, and saw the need for military strength.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025
In April 1921 his wife, a well-known pacifist and suffragette named Jessie Hardy Stubbs, flung herself off a bridge over the East River in New York and drowned.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
