fundamentalist

[ fuhn-duh-men-tl-ist ]

noun

1. an adherent of fundamentalism, a religious movement characterized by a strict belief in the literal interpretation of religious texts:

   radical fundamentalists.

adjective

1. noting or relating to fundamentalism or fundamentalists:

   fundamentalist sects.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fundamentalist¹

First recorded in 1920–25; fundamental ( def ) + -ist ( def )

Example Sentences

Tanton gravitated to science — not to the fundamentalist Evangelical United Brethren Church of his mother — and eventually studied medicine.

From Salon

In 1999, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that emerged triumphant from the Afghan civil war, wanted to legitimize themselves on the world stage as the rightful rulers of this mountainous land.

From Salon

Titled “The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity,” it revealed how this femiphobia is a driving force in men’s choice of candidates, stances on a wide variety of political issues, their embrace of fundamentalist religions and support for wars of conquest.

From Salon

“The LDS church leadership is actually far more progressive than a lot of these traditional, kind of fundamentalist people in the church. And they just kind of refuse to acknowledge that they’re out of step with where the church is.”

From Los Angeles Times

Salmond led the party into joining the "Yes-Yes" campaign for a Scottish parliament, arguing the "gradualist" rather than "fundamentalist" approach to gaining independence.

From BBC

Related Words

• fanatic
• zealot