EXISTENTIALIST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does existentialist mean? 

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

1. a philosopher who emphasizes freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable

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

• EXISTENTIALIST (adjective)
  The adjective EXISTENTIALIST has 1 sense:

1. relating to or involving existentialism

  Familiarity information: EXISTENTIALIST used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXISTENTIALIST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A philosopher who emphasizes freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

existential philosopher; existentialist; existentialist philosopher

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

philosopher (a specialist in philosophy)

Instance hyponyms:

Beauvoir; Simone de Beauvoir (French feminist and existentialist and novelist (1908-1986))

Albert Camus; Camus (French writer who portrayed the human condition as isolated in an absurd world (1913-1960))

Heidegger; Martin Heidegger (German philosopher whose views on human existence in a world of objects and on Angst influenced the existential philosophers (1889-1976))

Jean-Paul Sartre; Sartre (French writer and existentialist philosopher (1905-1980))

Derivation:

existentialism ((philosophy) a 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe; assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves)

• EXISTENTIALIST (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or involving existentialism

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

the existentialist character of his ideas

Pertainym:

existentialism ((philosophy) a 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe; assumes that people are entirely free and thus responsible for what they make of themselves)