lateralist
lateralist adjective: characteristic of lateralism; pertaining to the interactions of opposing interests of equal power.
Adjective
lateralist (comparative more lateralist, superlative most lateralist)
- Characteristic of lateralism; pertaining to the interactions of opposing interests of equal power.
- If 'left-winger' and 'right-winger' are terms of opprobrium moreover, the journalists can help their chosen cause by invoking lateralist terms to characterise, in the guise of simply describing, one of the parties in a dispute. This implies that the other party is 'centrist' or 'moderate' or...1980, The Australian Quarterly - Volumes 52-53, page 365
- A chief criticism levelled against American "lateralist" and "polar" theorists is precisely the accusation that they are attempting to avoid the issue of the development of relations between the two socio-economic systems, i.e., the essentially bipolar politico-strategic structure of postwar...1989, Allen Lynch, The Soviet Study of International Relations, →ISBN, page 104
- Favoring a lateral approach or explanation over one that involves a different direction, such as a vertical one.
- ...but as far as African bedded deposits are concerned I think that the prospector following either the “ lateralist " or " profundist " advice will waste much time and money unless he is also guided by a study of possible sources of the ore he seeks, and of the probable itenerary of the solutions...1915, Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
- Should the scientist be monological or multilogical? Should the scientist be reductionist or holist? Should the scientist be inductivist or deductivist: lateralist or verticalist?1991, Testudo: The Journal of the British Chelonia Group
Noun
lateralist (plural lateralists)
- One who engages in lateral thinking.
- The correlator is a lateralist capable of making one to one correspondences between the vertical sciences and the horizontal arts.1971, William Katavolos, Journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America - Volume 4, page 16
- One and one make two, the literalist said. So far they've made five billion, said the lateralist. Or ten if you count all the dead.1997, Gunnar Harding, Bengt Jangfeldt, Pat Strachan, Artes: An International Reader of Literature, Art and Music, →ISBN, page 93
- One who favors a lateral approach or explanation over one that involves a different direction.
- Harris was not, however, as we have already said, to walk the course, for the lateralists and attractists, took the field against him, and for a while divided the opinions of those interested in the matter. The lateral-explosionists were demolished by Messrs. Faraday and Wheatstone, who distinctly...1843, The United Service Magazine - Volume 42, page 500
- It can not be on that of numbers, as there will be such an overwhelming majority of diagonalities that the lateralists will be in a '"hopeless minority," hundreds against thousands when the computation is made.1892, Wallace's Monthly
- One who favors lateralism.
- It was at this meeting, after all, that many of us discovered for the first time that we were global unilateralists, global multilateralists, non-global unilateralists or multilateralists, to say nothing of lateralists of various persuasions and intensities.1982, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Henry A. Kissinger, Eugene Victor Rostow, The Transatlantic Crisis
- Going lateral was another movement that began on the Internet. The lateralists worked out that they could actually live way better by detaching themselves from the economic systems of derivatives, leverage, optionality, and toxic assets. In just months, the lateralists' ranks swelled from thousands...2015, John Joseph Adams, Loosed upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, →ISBN
Examples of lateralist in a sentence
- Albertano's more lateralist, Aristotelian sympathies are also reflected in his choice of setting, scenario and protagonists.2008, Kathleen A. Bishop, The Canterbury Tales Revisited: 21st Century Interpretations, page 236:
- A lateralist and multilateralist exchange of languages and value systems redeems economy from reduction to profit and loss.2013, Eva C. Karpinski, Jennifer Henderson, Ian Sowton, Trans/acting Culture, Writing, and Memory, →ISBN:
- To be able to use such a technique, the lateralist has to undergo a significant change in mental attitudes and outlook before practising this art consistently.2001, David Evans, Supervisory Management: Principles and Practice, →ISBN, page 169:
- The 'lateralists' have frequently pointed this out in relation to the history of the San Andreas fault.1984, Takeshi Uemura, Shinjirō Mizutani, Geological structures, →ISBN, page 40:
Forms of lateralist
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more lateralist |
| superlative | most lateralist |
| Noun | |
| plural | lateralists |
Origin of lateralist
From lateral + -ist.
Questions about lateralist
- What does lateralist mean?
- Lateralist means characteristic of lateralism; pertaining to the interactions of opposing interests of equal power.
- How do you use lateralist in a sentence?
- Albertano's more lateralist, Aristotelian sympathies are also reflected in his choice of setting, scenario and protagonists.
- What part of speech is lateralist?
- Lateralist can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near lateralist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lateralist (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.
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