universalist

U1N1I1V4E1R1S1A1L1I1S1T1

adjective

Universal in scope.

Opposite
Less commonScrabble 15

Meanings

universalist1

adjectiveuniversalist (comparative more universalist, superlative most universalist)

comparative more universalist · superlative most universalist

  1. Universal in scope.

    In tracing the relationships between Western Modernism and the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the curators took a universalist approach.

    2007 January 19, Grace Glueck, “Art in Review”, in New York Times
    1 more example

    In this connection, she notes (1984, p. 42) that in Vata (a language of the Kru family, spoken in the Ivory Coast) the normal word-order is _(VP) XP^✽ V, where XP^✽ represents one or more Complements of the head V of VP, and where V is positioned at the right periphery of V-bar. She notes that in Vata, a finite Clause containing an Auxiliary will have the AUX positioned in I between the subject NP and the VP, with the V positioned at the end of the VP, as in [...] But if I contains no Auxiliary (i.e. is empty), the Verb of the VP will move from V into I, and hence no longer be positioned at the end of VP, but rather in the characteristic I position between NP and VP: cf. [...] Here, the movement of the Verb out of VP-final position ([...]) into I produces an obvious change in the linear ordering of constituents, thus lending clear empirical support to the V MOVEMENT analysis. And Koopman goes on to suggest that given that we have clear empirical motivation for positing a rule of V MOVEMENT for languages such as Vata, universalist considerations argue in favor of adopting the V MOVEMENT analysis rather than the AFFIX MOVEMENT analysis for English, in default of any evidence to the contrary.

    1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 404
  2. GermanicUSlifestyleFollowing a form of neopaganism, especially Germanic neopaganism, that is supportive of minorities and marginalized groups.
noununiversalist (plural universalists)

plural universalists

  1. A proponent of universalism.

    The universalists place the active nodes of linguistic life—the deep structures—so deep as to defy observation and description.

    1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 276

Universalist2

nounUniversalist (plural Universalists)

plural Universalists

  1. A follower of Universalism
  2. alternativeAlternative form of Unitarian Universalist

    Synonyms: Unitarian Universalist

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAlternative form of Unitarian Universalist

Opposite

More synonyms by meaning

adjectiveof or relating to or tending toward universalism

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

universalist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universalist

MLA

“universalist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universalist. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “universalist,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universalist.

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