Meaning & use
solutionist
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Meanings
nouncountabledisapproving
A person who believes problems, especially social ones, can be fixed with a technical or practical fix, often with too much confidence.
Grammar: Countable: a solutionist, several solutionists.
Patterns
- a technological solutionist
The author called the startup founder a solutionist who ignored the real causes of poverty.
Solutionists believe an app can fix almost anything.
She is no solutionist and prefers to study a problem before acting.
adjectivebefore a noundisapproving
Relating to the belief that problems can be solved by a practical or technical fix.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a solutionist mindset.
Patterns
- a solutionist approach
Critics dismissed the plan as a solutionist fantasy.
His solutionist mindset made him skip the discussion.
The conference had a solutionist tone.
Word forms
| plural | solutionists |
|---|
Common combinations
- tech solutionist
- The tech solutionist promised an app for every problem.
- solutionist thinking
- Solutionist thinking can miss the bigger picture.
- solutionist mindset
- A solutionist mindset can make meetings short but shallow.
- solutionist approach
- The solutionist approach ignored local needs.
- naive solutionist
- He was a naive solutionist who trusted every new gadget.
Synonyms and how they differ
- problem-solver
- Is a positive term for anyone who fixes things, unlike solutionist, which often carries criticism.
- technocrat
- Is someone who governs or decides by technical expertise, which is narrower than solutionist.
- fixer
- Is informal and practical, and does not suggest overconfidence.
Opposites
Word family
- solution noun
- an answer to a problem
- solutionism noun
- the belief that every problem has a technical fix
- solve verb
- to find an answer to a problem
- solutionize verb
- to turn into a solution, business jargon
Commonly confused: solutionist or solicitor?
solutionist vs solicitor
A solicitor is a type of lawyer in Britain and unrelated to solutionist.
Practice
Critics called him a solutionist because he ___.
Choose one answer.
A solutionist is overconfident that practical or technical fixes solve complex problems. The other options describe other attitudes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “solutionist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.