feminist

1 of 2

noun

fem·​i·​nist ˈfe-mə-nist 

plural feminists

: a person who supports or engages in feminism

Similarly, Saint Thomas's resident nun, Sister Maureen (Ann Dowd), is no girlish cutie: She's an ardent, in-your-face feminist.

—Terrence Rafferty

He [Stendhal] was a feminist and … he held that to deprive women of education 'deprives society of half its potential for intellectual achievement'.

—V. S. Pritchett

feminist

2 of 2

adjective

: of, relating to, supporting, or compatible with feminism

feminist theory

the feminist movement

The act of speaking is a way women come to power, telling our stories, sharing history, engaging in feminist discussion.

—bell hooks

[Patricia] Ireland, past president of the National Organization for Women, is perhaps the best-known former Pan Am flight attendant of the '60s; seven years working for the airline helped inspire her feminist activism, which included campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment.

—Sarah Rose

Examples of feminist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Well, then the little feminist in me felt this is quite similar to the position of a woman in the Balkans. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2025

To be clear, many of us—the Negroes, the queers, the hairy feminists, et cetera, et cetera—do not react out of a feeling of personal injury, as if the blondeness-as-beauty standard has terrorized us. —Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 5 Aug. 2025

Adjective

The result is a highly stylized, campy ode to Alfred Hitchcock and Italian giallo films of the 1960s with a feminist twist, critiquing societal pressures placed on women, traditional gender roles, and expectations set on love and relationships. —Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 6 Aug. 2025

Ami Mali Hicks, who also worked as art director of the Lotus Press while at the Chase school, later became a member of the secret feminist debate society, Heterodoxy, and served as treasurer of a women’s political activist group. —Anne Halsey, JSTOR Daily, 6 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1887, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1852, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing feminist

• anti-feminist
• pre-feminist
• trans exclusionary radical feminist