verbalist

American

[vur-buh-list] / ˈvɜr bə lɪst /

noun

a person skilled in the use of words.
a person who is more concerned with words than with ideas or reality.

verbalist British

/ ˈvɜːbəlɪst /

noun

a person who deals with words alone, rather than facts, ideas, feeling, etc
a person skilled in the use of words

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

verbalistic

adjective

Etymology

Origin of verbalist

First recorded in 1600–10; verbal + -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.

Summary: An extremely interesting case showing strong development of a tendency to swindling on the part of a young man of curiously unequal mental abilities, a subnormal verbalist.

From Pathology of Lying, accusation, and swindling: a study in forensic psychology by Healy, William

Three days agone I would have tilted at it once more with all the untutored zeal of a verbalist.

From The Yeoman Adventurer by Gough, George W.

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