Sartre

American

[sahr-truh, sahrt, sar-tr^uh] / ˈsɑr trə, sɑrt, ˈsar trə /

noun

Jean-Paul 1905–80, French philosopher, novelist, and dramatist: declined 1964 Nobel Prize in literature.

Sartre British

/ sartrə /

noun

Jean-Paul (ʒɑ̃pɔl). 1905–80, French philosopher, novelist, and dramatist; chief French exponent of atheistic existentialism. His works include the philosophical essay Being and Nothingness (1943), the novels Nausea (1938) and Les Chemins de la liberté (1945–49), a trilogy, and the plays Les Mouches (1943), Huis clos (1944), and Les Mains sales (1948)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his first novel in the foggy climes of coastal Normandy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Sartre argued that for the antisemite, “there is no question of building a new society, but only of purifying the one that exists.”

From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2025

Writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett and singer Serge Gainsbourg were laid to rest at Montparnasse, while actress Jane Birkin's ashes were interned there.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2025

Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were wowed by him when they finally met in Rome in 1961.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2024

The book on top was Being and Nothingness by Sartre.

From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023