symbolist

[ sim-buh-list ]

noun

1. a person who uses symbols or symbolism.
2. a person versed in the study or interpretation of symbols.
3. Literature.
   1. a writer who seeks to express or evoke emotions, ideas, etc., by stressing the symbolic value of language, to which is ascribed a capacity for communicating otherwise inexpressible visions of reality.
   2. (usually initial capital letter) a member of a group of chiefly French and Belgian poets of the latter part of the 19th century who sought to evoke aesthetic emotions by emphasizing the associative character of verbal, often private, images or by using synesthetic devices, as vowel sounds, presumably evocative of color.
4. Fine Arts.
   1. an artist who seeks to symbolize or suggest ideas or emotions by the objects represented, the colors used, etc.
   2. (usually initial capital letter) a member of a group of late 19th-century artists who rejected realism and sought to express subjective visions rather than objective reality through the use of evocative images.
5. (often initial capital letter) Ecclesiastical. a person who rejects the doctrine of transubstantiation and views the Eucharist symbolically.
6. a person who favors the use of symbols in religious services.

adjective

1. of or relating to symbolists or symbolism.

symbolist

/ ˈsɪmbəlɪst /

noun

1. a person who uses or can interpret symbols, esp as a means to revealing aspects of truth and reality
2. an artist or writer who practises symbolism in his work
3. usually capital a writer associated with the symbolist movement
4. often capital an artist associated with the movement of symbolism
5. Christian theol a person who rejects any interpretation of the Eucharist that suggests that Christ is really present in it, and who maintains that the bread and wine are only symbols of his body and blood

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characterizing symbolism or symbolists

Derived Forms

• ˌsymbolˈistically, adverb
• ˌsymbolˈistic, adjective

Other Words From

• symbol·istic adjective
• symbol·isti·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of symbolist¹

First recorded in 1575–85; symbol + -ist

Example Sentences

The poetic, light-filled merger of such realist and symbolist tendencies was not uncommon in European and American art of the period.

From Los Angeles Times

The Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was born on 14 July 1862.

From BBC

Just when revivals can start to feel rote, Alden’s staging — sleekly symbolist yet not too abstract — can help us recall that the composer himself was an ambitious creative spirit.

From New York Times

By then, Mr. Verlaine had adopted the surname of French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine, whom he said he had never read.

From Washington Post

Born Thomas Miller, Verlaine — who died on Saturday at 73 — renamed himself after a symbolist poet, Paul Verlaine, and he built his songs around guitar patterns that interlocked like cats’ cradles, intricate but never confining.

From New York Times