Meaning & use
physicist
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A scientist who studies matter, energy, forces, space and time and how they behave.
Grammar: Needs an article or plural: a physicist, two physicists.
Patterns
- a physicist at somewhere
- a physicist who studies something
The physicist explained why the satellite stays in orbit.
My aunt, a physicist, builds instruments that measure tiny magnetic fields.
Several physicists signed the letter asking for more research funding.
Word forms
| plural | physicists |
|---|
Common combinations
- theoretical physicist
- The theoretical physicist spends her days working on equations.
- particle physicist
- A particle physicist described the new experiment at the collider.
- nuclear physicist
- He trained as a nuclear physicist before moving into energy policy.
- leading physicist
- A leading physicist praised the discovery.
- physicist and mathematician
- Newton was both a physicist and a mathematician.
Synonyms and how they differ
- scientist
- Scientist is much broader and covers any field, while physicist names one specific science.
- researcher
- A researcher may work in any subject and does not have to be a physics specialist.
- cosmologist
- A cosmologist is a narrower kind of physicist who studies the origin and structure of the universe.
Word family
- physics noun
- the science a physicist studies
- physical adjective
- relating to the body or to material things
- physically adverb
- in a bodily or material way
- astrophysicist noun
- a physicist who studies stars and galaxies
Commonly confused: physicist or physician?
physicist vs physician
A physician is a medical doctor. A physicist studies physics, not medicine.
Practice
A person who studies forces, energy and motion for a living is called a ___.
Choose one answer.
A physicist studies physics. A physician is a doctor, which is a tempting confusion because the words look alike.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “physicist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.