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
Terrence RaffertyHe [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
V. S. Pritchett
: 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
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
Sarah RoseExamples of feminist in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2025
Most women fall somewhere in between those two tropes, and for years feminists like Strauss have been working to do away with that false binary.
—Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 10 Oct. 2025
Damon Wise, Deadline, 21 Oct. 2025
Set in the 1970s at the meetings of a feminist consciousness-raising group — as well as in the present day, when a narrator (Susannah Flood) is telling the story of the group her mother founded — the show goes down like a bracing tonic, an antidote for the dark.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feminist
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Noun
Beauvoir’s letters show a softer, surprisingly endearing side of the pioneering feminist, and Acocella mines them for the delightful and the dirty.
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2025
Most women fall somewhere in between those two tropes, and for years feminists like Strauss have been working to do away with that false binary.
—Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Arabian Nights in Julia Jackman’s feature debut, a feminist fantasy that leans hard into whimsy while making some salient points about the place of women in the real world.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 21 Oct. 2025
Set in the 1970s at the meetings of a feminist consciousness-raising group — as well as in the present day, when a narrator (Susannah Flood) is telling the story of the group her mother founded — the show goes down like a bracing tonic, an antidote for the dark.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feminist
Cite this Entry
“Feminist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminist. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.
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