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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for philistines
  1. clowns
  2. capitalists
  3. rats
Noun
  • Perhaps most astonishingly, the movie manages to make creepy clowns — that shopworn trope — genuinely frightening again.
    — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 7 July 2026
  • Hang out with sheep, meet magicians and clowns and explore the amusement park.
    — Cole Premo, CBS News, 29 June 2026
Definition of clowns
Noun
  • Venture capitalists pushed digital-media startups to go all in.
    — Max Tani, semafor.com, 9 July 2026
  • Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies.
    — Diana Olick, CNBC, 8 July 2026
Definition of capitalists
Noun
  • That’s where the money is these days, and only the most expert studio rats—say, Nine Inch Nails, Tame Impala, or Steely Dan—have been able to reverse-engineer careers into polished touring acts.
    — Patrick Lyons, Pitchfork, 16 July 2026
  • Vivani last year said pre-clinical data on the semaglutide implant in rats showed roughly 20% weight loss for over 6 months, with the potential for annual dosing.
    — Annika Kim Constantino, CNBC, 11 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.

Browse Nearby Words

philistine
philistines
philistinism
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Philistines.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/philistines. Accessed 17 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on philistines

Nglish: Translation of philistines for Spanish Speakers

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!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of obdurate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 17
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
child-detective
Spot the Misspelled Word July 2026 Those little red underlines can't help you now...
See All