Word.ws English Dictionary

disciplinist

disciplinist noun: a proponent of disciplinism.

Noun

disciplinist (plural disciplinists)

  1. (historical) A proponent of disciplinism.
    • Or, to put the three views concretely, the formal disciplinist would say that training the reasoning power by mathematics would make one a better lawyer or medical diagnostician; the non-transferrist would say that training in geometry helped geometry but had nothing to do with, say, trigonometry...1918, California Teachers Association, CTA Journal - Volume 14, page 392
    • The function of education to a formal disciplinist is to train the faculties.1956, George Willard Frasier, An introduction to the study of education, page 135
  2. A disciplinarian; one who stresses obedience to authority.
    • La Trappe, a Frenchman, was a gloomy disciplinist and recluse, and a founder of a set of devotees, who are obliged to live in the practice of the utmost austerities, and without ever speaking to each other.1830, William Pinnock, Iconology; or, Emblematic figures explained, page 379
    • The disciplinists saw them as dangerously corrupted and therefore in need of drastic purification rites; the diversifiers, to cite the historian Barbara M. Brenzel, professed "a strong faith in the inherent innocence of children"; they "would save all wayward children by giving them the environment...1983, Thelma Falk Baily, Walter Hampton Baily, Criminal or social intervention in child sexual abuse, page 15
  3. One whose job is to enforce discipline.
    • The prison disciplinist, Jno. Clay, of Preston, claims to be descended from the third sone of Richard Clay, of the Hill, who had five sons and three daughters.1870, The Reliquary - Volume 10, page 146

Examples of disciplinist in a sentence

  • The aim of a liberal/perennial education is to discipline or exercise the mind (a mental disciplinist approach) through the study of absolutes, often articulated in the form of principles.1998, Bruce Spencer, Sue M. Scott, Alan M. Thomas, Learning for Life: Canadian Readings in Adult Education, page 100:
  • The disciplinists saw them as dangerously corrupted and therefore in need of drastic purification rites; the diversifiers, to cite the historian Barbara M.1983, Thelma Falk Baily, Walter Hampton Baily, Criminal or social intervention in child sexual abuse, page 15:
  • This is disciplinist distortion, and it has led to the consequent ignorance among social scientists of the fundamental crisis of underdevelopment.1990, Alexander R. Magno, Power Without Form: Essays on the Filipino State and Politics, page 9:
  • Though most of the top clerics and university theologians were in the disciplinist camp, the opposition also had support within the church, if in general from somewhat disaffected pastors.2010, Charles Gunnoe, Thomas Erastus and the Palatinate, →ISBN:

Forms of disciplinist

pluraldisciplinists

Origin of disciplinist

From discipline + -ist.

Questions about disciplinist

What does disciplinist mean?
Disciplinist means a proponent of disciplinism.
How do you use disciplinist in a sentence?
The aim of a liberal/perennial education is to discipline or exercise the mind (a mental disciplinist approach) through the study of absolutes, often articulated in the form of principles.
What part of speech is disciplinist?
Disciplinist is a noun.
What is the plural of disciplinist?
The plural of disciplinist is disciplinists.

Words near disciplinist in the dictionary

  1. disciplineth
  2. discipling
  3. disciplining
  4. disciplinings
  5. disciplinism
  6. disciplinist
  7. disciplinists
  8. discipular
  9. discision
  10. discission
  11. discissions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: disciplinist (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:

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