realist

1 of 2

noun

re·​al·​ist ˈrē-ə-list 

plural realists

1

: a person who recognizes what is real or possible in a particular situation : one who accepts and deals with things as they really are

a political realist

She considers herself a realist when it comes to parenting.

2

: a person (such as a writer or painter) who adheres to a style of realism by representing things in a way faithful to nature or to real life

Chekhov was essentially more of a realist than Dostoevski, whose force often lay in a strong proclivity to melodrama …

—Roger Shattuck

realist

2 of 2

adjective

: in the style of realism : faithful in representation to nature or to real life

realist paintings

Though a number of Dahl's most engaging stories, particularly in his early career, are cast in a realist mode, his reputation is that of a writer of macabre, blackly jocose tales …

—Joyce Carol Oates

Examples of realist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Labour leader Starmer, though, has taken a realist rather than an idealist approach to the president, putting Britain's foreign policy interests above the strong opposition to Trump in the rank and file of his own party. —Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2025

This critique involved not just intellectuals on the left, but also famous American realists who played a key part in rallying U.S. liberal opinion to resist Nazism and Stalinism. —Anatol Lieven, Harper's Magazine, 19 Feb. 2025

Adjective

The dialogue is both realist, full of the ejaculations and repetitions that characterize human speech, and poetic, with only the occasional anapest interrupting the poem’s iambic pentameter. —Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025

What is needed now is a new internationalism: a realist internationalism. —Anatol Lieven, Harper's Magazine, 19 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

1853, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing realist

• photo-realist