environmentalist

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,303 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: environmentalists

An environmentalist is somebody who works to protect the natural world. A lifelong environmentalist, environmentalists warned, an environmentalist group.

The word covers everybody from a hedge-planting volunteer to a scientist to a protester, which is why it means so little without context. It was rare before the 1960s and is now in every news report.

Definitions of environmentalist

1nounenvironmentalistSomebody who works to protect the natural world.B2+
“The environmentalist chained herself to a tree to stop it being cut down.”

environmentalist is a person.

Where it comes from

From environmental + -ist.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

environmentalist in the wild

Free-market environmentalists therefore argue that the best way to protect the environment is to clarify and protect property rights.
Free-market environmentalism
Robert Lorne Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and politician.
Robert Hunter (journalist)
Anil Kumar Agarwal was an Indian environmentalist, trained as a mechanical engineer at IIT Kanpur, worked as a science correspondent for the Hindustan Times.
Anil Agarwal (environmentalist)
Anti-environmentalist actors may include workers in industries and companies that are threatened by environmental policies, and anti-environmentalist think tanks.
Anti-environmentalism
Ma Jun is a Chinese environmentalist, environmental consultant, and journalist.
Ma Jun (environmentalist)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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