Meaning & use
ethicist
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Meaning
nouncountable
A person who studies questions of right and wrong as a profession and often advises others on them.
Grammar: Often has a field before it: a medical ethicist.
Patterns
- an ethicist at something
- consult an ethicist
The hospital asked an ethicist to advise on the difficult case.
A leading ethicist argued that the new law was unfair.
She works as an ethicist for a technology company.
Word forms
| plural | ethicists |
|---|
Common combinations
- a bioethicist
- A bioethicist spoke about gene editing at the conference.
- a leading ethicist
- A leading ethicist criticized the proposal.
- consult an ethicist
- Researchers must consult an ethicist before the trial.
- a business ethicist
- A business ethicist trained the managers.
- an ethicist argues
- The ethicist argues that honesty matters most.
Synonyms and how they differ
- moral philosopher
- A moral philosopher is a more academic term, usually a university scholar, while an ethicist may be a practicing advisor.
- ethics expert
- Ethics expert is a plain description that does not suggest a formal job title as ethicist does.
- moralist
- A moralist tends to tell others how to behave, and the word can sound disapproving.
- ethics consultant
- An ethics consultant is hired by organizations to advise them, which is one kind of ethicist.
Word family
Commonly confused: ethicist or ethnicist?
ethicist vs ethnicist
This is not a standard word; ethnic relates to cultural groups, while an ethicist studies morality.
Practice
Before the trial began, the hospital asked a(n) ___ whether it was morally acceptable.
Choose one answer.
An ethicist studies moral questions and advises on them. An economist, engineer or editor would not be consulted about right and wrong in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ethicist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.