scientist
noun
scientist
American
[sahy-uhn-tist]
/ ˈsaɪ ən tɪst /
noun
-
scientists
plural
Scientist
1
British
/ ˈsaɪəntɪst /
noun
-
Christian Science Christ as supreme spiritual healer
-
short for Christian Scientist See Christian Scientist
scientist
2
British
/ ˈsaɪəntɪst /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of scientist
Explanation
A scientist is a person with some kind of knowledge or expertise in any of the sciences, like biology or chemistry. See that guy in the white lab coat wearing pocket protectors and experimenting with chemicals? He’s definitely a scientist. The word science comes from the Latin, scientia, which means "knowledge." The sciences are branches of knowledge about the world that derive from repeated experiments. A scientist is any person with an interest in the sciences, from amateurs to professionals. A curious high school student interested in seeing what happens when he slips vinegar into his best friend's can of soda could be considered a kind of scientist!
Vocabulary lists containing scientist
Occupations
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"Hitching a Ride"
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 4
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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:
Well, you know, you start with a scientist who wants to do something big and important.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Marine scientist David Obura said the exceptional El Nino pattern building strength in the tropical Pacific could drive vulnerable coral species even closer toward extinction.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Areas west of the 405 Freeway have received essentially no rain and are at the highest risk for wildfire, said Daniel Swain, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
But the initiative went nowhere, according to a scientist involved in the effort.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Sergei Korolev, the brilliant rocket scientist behind Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin’s flight, had long dreamed of sending an unmanned probe to the red planet.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Scientist have projected for years that climate change would lead to fewer Santa Anas by the end of the century.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
"The cyber defence capabilities will enable enterprises and governments to defend themselves against threat actors that are jailbreaking closed models to perform cyberattacks," Mistral's Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample said in the statement.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
The PAC had received a $150,000 donation from a newly created LLC with a typo in its name: the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers, with no S at the end of “Scientist.”
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Alphabet’s shares fell 4.1% to $360.13 after the Google parent said veteran Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, a key driver of its AI strategy, was leaving to found a startup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
So, too, no New Scientist, no science pages in the New York Times where the newest work could be reported, compared, commented on.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The research also involved scientists from the University of Edinburgh's Lothian Birth Cohort studies and Northwestern University.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Beyond its potential medical applications, the research changes how scientists understand the role of oligodendrocytes in the aging brain.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
First author Michelle Kueppers, a postdoctoral scholar in Moerner's laboratory, explained that combining the strengths of different imaging approaches could help scientists answer previously inaccessible questions.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Moerner and Kueppers are continuing to refine the instrument, with the goal of eventually making it accessible to scientists across many areas of biology.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Only three people had been in the Red Zone at the time of the eruption: two civilian scientists and Harry Truman.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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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.
