ENVIRONMENTALIST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does environmentalist mean? 

• ENVIRONMENTALIST (noun)
  The noun ENVIRONMENTALIST has 1 sense:

1. someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution

  Familiarity information: ENVIRONMENTALIST used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENVIRONMENTALIST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

conservationist; environmentalist

Hypernyms ("environmentalist" is a kind of...):

crusader; meliorist; reformer; reformist; social reformer (a disputant who advocates reform)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "environmentalist"):

Green (an environmentalist who belongs to the Green Party)

tree hugger (derogatory term for environmentalists who support restrictions on the logging industry and the preservation of forests)

Instance hyponyms:

Carson; Rachel Carson; Rachel Louise Carson (United States biologist remembered for her opposition to the use of pesticides that were hazardous to wildlife (1907-1964))

Barbara Ward; Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth; Ward (English economist and conservationist (1914-1981))

Derivation:

environmentalism (the activity of protecting the environment from pollution or destruction)

 Context examples 

The spotted owl gained national prominence in the United States during the 1990s, when environmentalists' efforts to preserve its habitat resulted in federal measures forbidding logging on large swaths of land, as well as federal limits on the sales of harvested wood.

(Researchers find preserving spotted owl habitat may not require a tradeoff with wildfire risk after all, Wikinews)