purist

noun

pur·​ist ˈpyu̇r-ist 

: a person who adheres strictly and often excessively to a tradition

especially : one preoccupied with the purity of a language and its protection from the use of foreign or altered forms

puristic

pyu̇-ˈri-stik 

adjective

puristically

pyu̇-ˈri-sti-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Examples of purist in a Sentence

a purist who only drinks European wines

Recent Examples on the Web

Republican purists wanted a simple, technical training school that kept the costs low and, more importantly, kept the officer corps from evolving into an aristocracy. —Ryan Shaw / Made By History, TIME, 24 Feb. 2025

Literary purists bemoan the transformation of authors into content creators, arguing that time spent crafting clever tweets is time stolen from crafting sentences. —Jd Barker, Rolling Stone, 23 Jan. 2025

Bob Dylan went electric, and folk purists went crazy. —Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2025

Plantation gets a lot of grief from purists for aging its rum in ex-Cognac barrels owned by its parent company, Maison Ferrand, and for sweetening some of its rums after distillation. —Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1699, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for purist

• jurist
• purest
• surest
• tourist