scientist
Americannoun
noun
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Christian Science Christ as supreme spiritual healer
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short for Christian Scientist See Christian Scientist
noun
Other Word Forms
- nonscientist noun
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.
“We should recognize that hydropower is not a carbon-free — in the sense that it has no greenhouse gas emissions — source of electricity,” said Steven Hamburg, EDF’s chief scientist and the study’s co-author.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
Asked about Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned for calling for political reforms, one model identified him as “a Japanese scientist known for his contributions to nuclear weapons technology.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
"Putting all of these components together into a single, reliable system was the key," says first author Kimmo Rantalainen, a senior scientist in Schief's lab.
From Science Daily • Apr. 12, 2026
"From a physics point of view it makes sense," says Dr Simeon Barber, a space scientist from the Open University.
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
All he does is sit around and listen to ancient music and pretend like he’s already a disciplined scientist with the GSC!
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
