Word.ws English Dictionary

careerist

/kəˈɹɪɹɪst/

careerist noun: a person who pursues the advancement of their career at the expense of other values.

Noun

careerist (plural careerists)

  1. (derogatory) A person who pursues the advancement of their career at the expense of other values.
    • A careerist is a square-filler, a time-server. His talents and imagination have been circumscribed to perform managerial duties.1980, Alfred Kern, “Waiting for Euripides”, reprinted in Malham M. Wakin (editor), Military Ethics, DIANE Publishing (1994), page 121
    • Liu Hsin's famous jibe seems to have been directed not against Yang Hsiung but against the intellectual limitations of contemporary careerists. […] Yang's writings and personal character did not appeal to the careerists of his time1995, Michael Nylan and Nathan Sivin, An Introduction to Yang Hsiung's "Canon of Supreme Mystery" (T'ai Hsüan Ching, ca. 4 B.C.)
  2. A person who takes a job, especially in the military, for a long time rather than temporarily.

Adjective

careerist (comparative more careerist, superlative most careerist)

  1. Of or pertaining to such a person or way of life

Forms of careerist

Noun
pluralcareerists
Adjective
comparativemore careerist
superlativemost careerist

Origin of careerist

From career + -ist.

Words formed from careerist

Questions about careerist

What does careerist mean?
Careerist means a person who pursues the advancement of their career at the expense of other values.
What part of speech is careerist?
Careerist can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce careerist?
Careerist is pronounced /kəˈɹɪɹɪst/.
What is the plural of careerist?
The plural of careerist is careerists.

Words near careerist in the dictionary

  1. careering
  2. careeringly
  3. careerings
  4. careerism
  5. careerisms
  6. careerist
  7. careeristic
  8. careerists
  9. careerless
  10. careerlessness
  11. careerlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: careerist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-careerist.wav.

Cite this entry: “careerist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/careerist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.