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activist

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

One who is conspicuously active in carrying out any occupational or professional functions.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

aktuhvuhst

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈæktəvəst

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. One who is politically active in the role of a citizen; especially, one who campaigns for change.

  2. One who is conspicuously active in carrying out any occupational or professional functions.

adjective

  1. Behaving as an activist.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: One who is politically active in the role of a citizen; especially, one who campaigns for change.

An 'activist' is someone who champions a cause, often through public action. Unlike a 'supporter,' an activist takes direct steps to make a change happen.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where you'll really hear it

  • News article

    “The climate activist spoke passionately at the rally.”

  • Documentary narration

    “She became a vocal activist for human rights.”

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use activist

  • “The environmental activist campaigned tirelessly for clean energy in our town.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Politically

political activistactivist role

Other combinations

community activistactivist groupblack activistenvironmental activiststudent activistgay activist

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • activitynounDerived noun

    Any specific behavior.

  • activationnounDerived noun

    Stimulation of activity in an organism or chemical.

  • activismnounDerived noun · specialist

    A policy of taking direct action to achieve a political or social goal.

  • activelyadverbDerived adverb

    In an active manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • civil rights activistnounCompound term

    A leader of the political movement dedicated to securing equal opportunity for members of minority groups.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: behaving as an activist

activisticRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.