✨📕 The NEWThe NEW Collegiate Dictionary, 12th Edition Over 5,000 words added — Buy Now! Collegiate DictionaryBuy Now!

ideologue

noun

ideo·​logue ˈī-dē-ə-ˌlȯg How to pronounce ideologue (audio)
-ˌläg
variants or less commonly idealogue
1
: an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology
2
: an impractical idealist : theorist

Examples of ideologue in a Sentence

as long as there are ideologues controlling both sides of the aisle, legislative compromise is out of the question the revolutionaries proved to be impractical ideologues who had no idea how to run a country
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Third parties, which are usually based on fringe views or a sense of grievance, are vehicles for ideologues, provocateurs and contrarians whose appeal is as limited as their problem-solving skills. Newsweek Contributors, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025 The author’s background perfectly positions her to deliver this lively, devastating taxonomy and critique of MAGA’s ideologues. George Packer, The Atlantic, 24 Nov. 2025 These regulations were in line with the views of the German Fighting League for German Culture, which had been founded in August 1927 under the leadership of the Nazi Party’s chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg. Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025 The last time the Supreme Court weighed the question of birthright citizenship was a hundred and twenty-seven years ago, and that case was also engineered by a small group of ideologues in government hoping for a rewrite of the Fourteenth Amendment. Rachel Morris, New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for ideologue

Word History

Etymology

French idéologue, back-formation from idéologie

First Known Use

1815, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of ideologue was in 1815

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Ideologue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideologue. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on ideologue

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!