survivalist

American  

[ser-vahy-vuh-list] / sərˈvaɪ və lɪst /

noun

1. a person who makes preparations to survive a widespread catastrophe, as an atomic war or anarchy, especially by storing food and weapons in a safe place.

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survivalist British  

/ səˈvaɪvəlɪst /

noun

1. 1. a person who believes in ensuring his personal survival of a catastrophic event by arming himself and often by living in the wild

   2. ( as modifier )

      survivalist weapons

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• survivalism
  noun

Etymology

Origin of survivalist

First recorded in 1965–70; survival + -ist

Example Sentences

The survivalist film will be released by the streaming service on 24 April.

From BBC • Jan. 16, 2026

In a fantastically engaging performance, Ralph Fiennes stars as the survivalist physician Ian Kelson, whom we met near the end of the previous feature.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026

The present-day Pacific Northwest has a prominent survivalist streak along with a healthy number of, shall we say, weird faith clubs.

From Salon • Apr. 13, 2025

A similar thing happened in 2012, when doomsday predictions led to an uptick in survivalist trends.

From Slate • Oct. 27, 2024

He called himself a survivalist and liked to wear camouflage and collect skulls of animals he found in the woods behind our house or on the side of the road.

From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda