nihilist 1 of 2

nihilist

2 of 2

noun

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of nihilist
Adjective
There’s no nihilist energy in the song. David Browne, Rolling Stone, 29 Aug. 2025
Noun
The activist Left is, in truth, nihilist. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nihilist
Adjective
  • Clearly, there was a dark, nihilistic underside to the culture.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
  • One such critic has crashed the party, and his nihilistic spirit is made vivid by Warren Bowles.
    Rob Hubbard, Twin Cities, 29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Talk of a solution—of two states, of a confederation, of nearly any prospect for a secure and free mode of coexistence—has long been dismissed as either an ingenuous assertion of faith or a cynical pantomime, an empty gesture toward a future no one expects to see.
    David Remnick, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
  • As my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote in March, on X, the White House is now a troll account, borrowing its snide visual language and tone from some of the internet’s most cynical spaces and deploying this style to mock and dehumanize people.
    Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • On the other hand, skeptics and cynics tend to be insistent right now that the clean-up activity is not going to last very long.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Travis Kelce knows what the cynics might think of his relationship with Taylor Swift — two of the most famous people in America just happen to match up perfectly?
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • That was like a very sort of fatalistic view.
    Outside Online, Outside Online, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Back on Capitol Hill, the mood is dour and fatalistic.
    Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 29 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • But the American leaders who midwifed the UN as World War II was still raging were somber realists, not utopians.
    Andreas Kluth, Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Ever the geopolitical realist, the Chinese president will know Modi’s presence at his banquet was opportunistic at best, and doesn’t indicate the start of a beautiful friendship.
    Bobby Ghosh, Time, 2 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • As Shiva, Afshari is a revelation of steely resolve, a pragmatist who holds fast to her conciliatory principles until a final scene that pushes her capacity for mercy to its limits.
    Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Above all, Goodall was a pragmatist.
    Martha Shade, CNN Money, 1 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Nihilist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nihilist. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

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