Standard Lemma guide

theologist

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • rhymes with -ɒlədʒɪst

1

noun

Meaning 1

One who is skilled in, professes or practices that which relates or pertains to God.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncommon

Examples

  • 1763 August 6, Elizabeth Carter, personal correspondence, in Montagu Pennington, Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter [...], Volume I, F. C. and J. Rivington (1808), page 319, She told me with great joy and simplicity, that an English lady had told her, that our religion was very much alike. I think it is very possible that she fancied us to be Heathens or Turks, before this profound theologist set her right.
  • 1884, William Chatterton Coupland, Translator's Preface to Eduard von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious: Speculative Results According to the Inductive Method of Physical Science, Volume I, MacMillan and Co., page viii, What would you have, says the scientist, but an ever-widening view of Nature's operations?—is it not enough, cries the theologist, to be sure that there is a God, although "His ways are past finding out?"
  • 2006, Syafiq Hasyim, Understanding Women in Islam: An Indonesian Perspective, Equinox Publishing, →ISBN, page 32, Besides being known as a theologist, he [Al-Razi] was noted for being a person of great farid (beauty). ¶ Al-Razi was an intellectual leader (imam) in the fields of Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic theology, rational sciences, and linguistics.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: theologer, theologian, theologician, theologue

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

someone who is learned in theology or who speculates about theology

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: theologian, theologizer, theologiser

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: scholar, scholarly person, bookman, student

Narrower terms: Church Father, Father of the Church, Father, Doctor of the Church, Doctor, eschatologist, futurist, presentist, preterist, Abelard, Peter Abelard, Pierre Abelard, Ambrose, Saint Ambrose, St. Ambrose, Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Thomas, St. Thomas, Saint Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas Aquinas, Arius, Arminius, Jacobus Arminius, Jacob Harmensen, Jakob Hermandszoon, Arnold of Brescia, Athanasius, Saint Athanasius, St. Athanasius, Athanasius the Great, Augustine, Saint Augustine, St. Augustine, Augustine of Hippo, Barth, Karl Barth, Basil, St. Basil, Basil of Caesarea, Basil the Great, St. Basil the Great, Bede, Saint Bede, St. Bede, Baeda, Saint Baeda, St. Baeda, Beda, Saint Beda, St. Beda, the Venerable Bede, Bellarmine, Bellarmino, Cardinal Bellarmine, Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmine, Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bultmann, Rudolf Bultmann, Rudolf Karl Bultmann, Calvin, John Calvin, Jean Cauvin, Jean Caulvin, Jean Chauvin, Duns Scotus, John Duns Scotus, Eck, Johann Eck, Johann Maier Eck, Johann Maier, Eckhart, Johannes Eckhart, Meister Eckhart, Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Erasmus, Desiderius Erasmus, Gerhard Gerhards, Geert Geerts, Gregory, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Hooker, Richard Hooker, Hopkins, Mark Hopkins, Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Loyola, Jansen, Cornelis Jansen, Cornelius Jansenius, Jerome, Saint Jerome, St. Jerome, Hieronymus, Eusebius Hieronymus, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, John Chrysostom, St. John Chrysostom, Knox, John Knox, Luther, Martin Luther, Melanchthon, Philipp Melanchthon, Philipp Schwarzerd, Newman, John Henry Newman, Cardinal Newman, Niebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr, Origen, Pusey, Edward Pusey, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Socinus, Faustus Socinus, Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Swedenborg, Svedberg, Emanuel Swedenborg, Emanuel Svedberg, Tertullian, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Tillich, Paul Tillich, Paul Johannes Tillich, Watts, Isaac Watts, Wycliffe, John Wycliffe, Wickliffe, John Wickliffe, Wyclif, John Wyclif, Wiclif, John Wiclif, Zinzendorf, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Zwingli, Ulrich Zwingli, Huldreich Zwingli

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin theologista.