MATERIALIST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does materialist mean? 

• MATERIALIST (noun)
  The noun MATERIALIST has 2 senses:

1. someone with great regard for material possessions

2. someone who thinks that nothing exists but physical matter

  Familiarity information: MATERIALIST used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MATERIALIST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone with great regard for material possessions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

capitalist (a person who invests capital in a business (especially a large business))

Derivation:

materialism (a desire for wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who thinks that nothing exists but physical matter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

nonbeliever (someone who refuses to believe (as in a divinity))

Derivation:

materialism ((philosophy) the philosophical theory that matter is the only reality)

 Context examples 

Unlike other materialists I had met and with whom I had something in common to start on, I had nothing in common with him.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I remembered Charley Furuseth, and knew this man’s sadness as the penalty which the materialist ever pays for his materialism.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then you are an individualist, a materialist, and, logically, a hedonist.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)