columnist
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of columnist
Explanation
A columnist writes regularly for a newspaper or magazine, usually expressing opinions or commentary. A columnist might write an article endorsing a candidate for president one week, and a story about a terrible local fire the next week. If you get a job as a newspaper columnist, you'll be expected to publish on a regular basis, maybe once or twice a week. An advice columnist answers letters that ask for help with personal problems and dilemmas, and a political columnist comments on various current events and political figures. The word columnist comes from a newspaper column, which got that name from the "vertical division of a page" meaning.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Saturday, love advice columnist Goth Shakira will be holding free astrology readings.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
Mr. Wooldridge is a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion and was previously the political editor of the Economist.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
"The guys built their following through social media and direct fan engagement before the industry fully understood how to do that, particularly with platforms like Twitter and SoundCloud," Jeff Benjamin, Billboard's K-pop columnist, told AFP.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
Over the past year, the “TACO trade,” as many on Wall Street call it, has evolved from a humorous acronym, first popularized by a columnist with the Financial Times, into a major force in markets.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 8, 2026
As his life moved forward—today he is writing a book about his mother and working as the South Jersey columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer—so did mine.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
