Meaning & use
pessimist
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who usually expects bad things to happen and notices the negative side of situations.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a pessimist, two pessimists, or the pessimists.
Patterns
- a pessimist about something
- be a pessimist by nature
- a born pessimist
My grandfather was a pessimist who always predicted rain on picnic day.
She's a pessimist about the team's chances, so she never buys tickets.
As a pessimist, he keeps an umbrella in his bag even in summer.
nouncountable
Someone who believes that people are generally selfish or that life will not improve.
Grammar: Countable and often used in general statements about a type of person.
Patterns
- a pessimist about human nature
- consider yourself a pessimist
He calls himself a pessimist because he thinks no one ever acts out of kindness.
The novel's narrator is a pessimist who doubts that society can change.
Word forms
| plural | pessimists |
|---|
Common combinations
- a natural pessimist
- Even on holiday, she's a natural pessimist and checks the weather warnings.
- a hopeless pessimist
- Don't be such a hopeless pessimist; the exam might go well.
- be a pessimist about
- He's a pessimist about the economy and saves every penny.
- a pessimist by nature
- I'm a pessimist by nature, so I always plan for problems.
- a pessimist's view
- From a pessimist's view, the glass is always half empty.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cynic
- A cynic distrusts people's motives, while a pessimist mainly expects bad outcomes.
- doomster
- Doomster is stronger and more informal, suggesting someone who enjoys predicting disaster.
- defeatist
- A defeatist expects to lose or fail in a particular effort; a pessimist has a general negative outlook.
- naysayer
- A naysayer objects to or doubts a specific plan, not necessarily everything in life.
Opposites
Word family
- pessimism noun
- The attitude or belief that bad things are likely.
- pessimistic adjective
- Expecting bad things; describing an outlook or person.
- pessimistically adverb
- In a way that expects the worst.
Commonly confused: pessimist or optimist? pessimist or passimist?
pessimist vs optimist
An optimist expects good things; a pessimist expects bad things.
pessimist vs passimist
This is a misspelling; the correct spelling is pessimist.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'pessimist' correctly.
Choose one answer.
A pessimist is a person, so it follows 'a' and takes 'about' for the topic: 'a pessimist about the team's chances'. Option 0 is wrong because a pessimist expects bad things, not sunny weather. Option 2 uses 'pessimist' as a verb, which it is not. Option 3 is wrong because 'pessimist' is a noun and needs 'a' before it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pessimist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.