survivalist

S1U1R1V4I1V4A1L1I1S1T1

noun

A person who believes in being prepared to survive and is actively preparing for possible future emergencies and disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order.

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UncommonScrabble 17

Meanings

nounsurvivalist (plural survivalists)

plural survivalists

  1. A person who believes in being prepared to survive and is actively preparing for possible future emergencies and disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order.

    But there are also French “survivalists” who – at least until about a decade ago – shared the drawbridge mentality of the Americans stocking up on peanut butter and ammo.

    2020 October 11, Laura Spinney, “‘Humans weren’t always here. We could disappear’: meet the collapsologists”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    2 more examples

    But why would survivalists flock to Pinterest, a site that was adopted early-on by people who wanted to share design ideas for home goods? In a way, preppers are actually the ideal user for the site.

    2014 May 15, Colette Shade, “How to Prep for the Apocalypse on Pinterest”, in The Atlantic

    The arrival of a starving mother and daughter (perfectly embodied by Olwen Fouéré and Mia Goth) disrupts the survivalist’s methodical routines and hardened emotions. Sex can be traded for food and shelter, but trust has no price;[…]

    2017 May 17, Jeannette Catsoulis, “Review: Three Must Become Two in ‘The Survivalist’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

    Synonyms: prepper

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA person who believes in being prepared to survive and is actively preparing for possible future emergencies and disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order.

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Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Italic*super
  4. Latinsuper
  5. Latinsuper-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*gʷih₃wós
  8. Proto-Indo-European*gʷíh₃weti
  9. Proto-Italic*gʷīwō
  10. Latinvīvō
  11. Latinsupervīvere
  12. Englishsurvive
  13. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  14. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  15. Englishsurvival
  16. Englishsurvivalist

From survival + -ist.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French survivaliste
  • survivalisteperson prepared to survive
Italian survivalista
  • survivalistaperson prepared to survive
Polish preppers, surwiwalista
  • preppersperson prepared to survive
  • surwiwalistaperson prepared to survive
Portuguese sobrevivencialista
  • sobrevivencialistaperson prepared to survive
Spanish supervivencialista, pervivencialista
  • supervivencialistaperson prepared to survive
  • pervivencialistaperson prepared to survive
Swedish preppare
  • preppareperson prepared to survive
Cite this entry
APA

survivalist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/survivalist

MLA

“survivalist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/survivalist. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “survivalist,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/survivalist.

Source: survivalist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.