philistines

noun

plural of philistine
as in materialists
a person who is chiefly interested in material comfort and is hostile or indifferent to art and culture the town's philistines who think that spending on the arts is a waste of taxpayers' money

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for philistines
  1. clowns
  2. capitalists
  3. rats
Noun
  • Hang out with sheep, meet magicians and clowns and explore the amusement park.
    — Cole Premo, CBS News, 29 June 2026
  • The only leaders more buffoonish and lethal than the fairground hucksters elected in our failing democracies are the omnipotent clowns of tyranny.
    — Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026
Definition of clowns
Noun
  • Swift, whose net worth surpasses $2 billion, has amassed a fortune that rivals tech founders and venture capitalists.
    — Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 2 July 2026
  • Supporters included venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple founder’s widow.
    — Lia Russell, Sacbee.com, 26 June 2026
Definition of capitalists
Noun
  • People typically get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice—normally when exposed to their urine, droppings and saliva, or sometimes through a bite or scratch—but officials say no rodents have been found on the MV Hondius ship.
    — Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • The news comes 20 years after the island was declared free of invasive rats.
    — Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 2 July 2026
Definition of rats
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Philistines.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/philistines. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on philistines

Nglish: Translation of philistines for Spanish Speakers

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