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

There’s been a lot of work by feminists and women’s health activists to understand the effect that hormones and menopausal hormone therapy has on our bodies. —Torie Bosch, STAT, 23 May 2026

Her readers have grown up to be filmmakers eager to adapt her feminist and often autobiographical books. —Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire, 18 May 2026

Adjective

Big Small Talk, and the author of two books on feminist issues, Bite Back and Taboo. —Ardian Wibisono, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026

One of my favorite filmmakers is Marxist feminist Lina Wertmüller, whose 1970s art-house films like A Night Full of Rain and Seven Beauties have in mind the fraught dynamics of gender relations, communism, and liberal feminism’s limitations. —Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 23 May 2026

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