Realist

How to spell realist

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce realist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does realist mean?

1. nounA person who accepts and deals with a situation as it actually is rather than as they would like it to be.
2. nounAn artist or writer who depicts subjects truthfully and without idealisation.

Realist in a sentence

• As a realist, she budgeted for the worst case rather than the best.

• The novelist was praised as a realist who described factory life exactly as it was.

• Every optimistic plan in the meeting needed a realist to check the numbers.

• As a painter the gallery labelled him a realist, devoted to ordinary streets and faces.

Where does realist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun res, which simply meant 'thing' or 'matter', and to the later Latin adjective realis, meaning 'actual' or 'relating to things'. From realis came the medieval and Renaissance idea of the 'real', that is, what actually exists rather than what is merely imagined or hoped for. The agent suffix -ist, also from Greek and Latin roots used to label a person who holds a position or practises a craft, was attached to give 'realist', a person concerned with real things. English took the word in around the early 1800s, first in philosophy and the arts, and it broadened into the everyday sense of a clear-eyed, practical person. The same res root survives in the everyday words 'real', 'reality' and even 'republic' (literally res publica, 'the public thing'), which is a handy reminder that the spelling keeps the plain 'real' intact before the ending.

How the word is built

• real- (from Latin res 'thing', via realis 'actual')
• -ist (one who follows or practises)