Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

physicist

/ˈfɪzɪsɪst/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.42 in modern English

Syllables: phy-sic-ist
IPA: /ˈfɪzɪsɪst/

19

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A person whose occupation specializes in the science of physics, especially at a professional level.

noun

A believer in the theory that the fundamental phenomena of life are to be explained upon purely chemical and physical principles (opposed to vitalist).

Archaic

Example Sentences

"Thus we may say, that while the Naturalist employs principally the ideas of resemblance and life, the Physicist proceeds upon the ideas of force, matter, and the properties of matter."
"Physicists find themselves called in to deal with such varied problems as the reduction of noise in diesel railcars, investigation of the Hertzian stresses set up by wheel-rail contact and improvement of the insulation of fish and banana vans."

Etymology

From physics + -ist. Coined by the English polymath William Whewell (1794–1866) in his book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840): see the quotation.

Word Breakdown

Suffix: physics

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈfɪzɪsɪst/
British English: /ˈfɪzɪsɪst/

Usage

Archaic

Inflected Forms

physicists (plural)

Derived Forms

agrophysicist astrophysicist biophysicist econophysicist geophysicist iatrophysicist microphysicist neurophysicist nonphysicist paraphysicist petrophysicist photophysicist

Phrases

condensed matter physicist health physicist mathematical physicist nuclear physicist theoretical physicist

Questions

How do you pronounce physicist?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈfɪzɪsɪst/.
What does physicist mean?: A person whose occupation specializes in the science of physics, especially at a professional level.
Where does physicist come from?: From physics + -ist. Coined by the English polymath William Whewell (1794–1866) in his book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840): see the quotation.

How to pronounce physicist

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “physicist”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈfɪzɪsɪst/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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