pessimist
/ˈpɛsɪmɪst/
pessimist noun: someone who habitually expects the worst outcome; one who looks on the dark side of things.
Noun
pessimist (plural pessimists)
- Someone who habitually expects the worst outcome; one who looks on the dark side of things.
- I will not marry a pessimist, a born loser, a fellow who has no fight in him.1940 September 29, “Letters Reveal Ordeals in France”, in The New York Times, page 12
- We are becoming as a nation, as a world, indeed, atom-conscious. Many of us are already afflicted with atomphobia, though so far it has manifested itself only in a mirage of autoaeromotive discs and a war of words between chronic optimists and empirical pessimists concerning civilization’s probable...1947 September 27, Richard R. Werry, “An American Beginning for International Education”, in School and Society, volume 66, number 1709, Lancaster, Pa.: The Society for the Advancement of Education...
- Antonyms:
- optimist
pessimist meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam
pessimist in Tamil
- படுகையர், தோல்வி மனப்பான்மையர், நம்பிக்கையற்றவர், மருள் நோக்கினர், எதிர்மறை சிந்தனையாளர்
pessimist in Bengali
- দুঃখবাদী, হতাশাবাদী ব্যক্তি
pessimist in Telugu
- someone who habitually expects the worst outcome
- నిరాశావాది nirāśāvādi
pessimist in Malayalam
- അശുഭപ്രതീക്ഷകൻ, അശുഭദർശി, ദോഷചിന്തകൻ, ലോകദ്വേഷി
More languagesFewer languages
- pessimist in Kannada
- ನಿರಾಶಾವಾದಿ, ಅಶುಭ ಪ್ರತೀಕ್ಷಕ
- pessimist in Arabic
- مُتَشَائِم mutašāʔim
- pessimist in Indonesian
- pesimis
Antonyms of pessimist
Forms of pessimist
| plural | pessimists |
|---|
Origin of pessimist
From French pessimiste, from Latin pessimus (“worst”) + -ist.
Words formed from pessimist
Questions about pessimist
- What does pessimist mean?
- Pessimist means someone who habitually expects the worst outcome; one who looks on the dark side of things.
- What is pessimist in Tamil?
- Pessimist in Tamil is படுகையர், தோல்வி மனப்பான்மையர், நம்பிக்கையற்றவர். See Pessimist meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is pessimist?
- Pessimist is a noun.
- How do you pronounce pessimist?
- Pessimist is pronounced /ˈpɛsɪmɪst/.
- What is the plural of pessimist?
- The plural of pessimist is pessimists.
Words near pessimist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pessimist (page history and authors); pessimist (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Pessimist (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pessimist (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pessimist (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pessimist.wav.
Cite this entry: “pessimist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pessimist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.