naturalist

naturalist — noun

1. someone who spends time observing and learning about wild plants, animals, and o

1.名詞B2
釋義

someone who spends time observing and learning about wild plants, animals, and other organisms in their natural habitats

例句

The young naturalist kept a notebook of every bird species she spotted in the forest.

keen/young/amateur naturalist — common collocations

Selim, who has been a keen naturalist since childhood, can identify over a hundred wildflowers.

同義詞
  • natural historian

    a more formal synonym, emphasising knowledge of natural history rather than active fieldwork

  • biologist

    a professional scientist; broader than naturalist, which can include amateurs

  • wildlife enthusiast

    a non-specialist who enjoys watching wild animals; less formal and less knowledgeable than a naturalist

  • field biologist

    a professional scientist who works outdoors studying organisms in their environment

用法筆記

More common than sense 2 in everyday use. Frequently paired with keen, amateur, or young (e.g., amateur naturalist, keen naturalist). Unlike a biologist, a naturalist usually observes living things in their natural settings rather than in a laboratory, and the term often implies amateur rather than professional status.

常見錯誤

❌A naturalist always needs a lab coat and a microscope.
✅A naturalist usually works outdoors, observing plants and animals in their natural habitats.
💡Naturalists study living things in the wild, not necessarily in laboratories.

2. a writer, painter, or other artist who creates work according to naturalist prin

2.名詞C1
釋義

a writer, painter, or other artist who creates work according to naturalist principles, depicting ordinary life and people in a detailed, unidealised manner

例句

Élise admired the 19th-century French naturalists for their honest depictions of working-class life.

naturalist + of + period/place

The novel was written by a famous naturalist who portrayed poverty without softening the details.

同義詞
  • realist

    a broader term for any artist who depicts things as they are, not necessarily tied to the specific naturalist movement

  • documentarian

    a person who creates factual records of real life; more common in film and photography than in literature

  • verist

    a highly formal term for someone who aims at extreme, sometimes brutal, realism in art

反義詞
  • romanticist

    an artist who shows life as it could be or should be, emphasising beauty and emotion over raw reality

  • idealist

    someone who portrays things in a perfect form, rather than as they really are

用法筆記

Distinguish from sense 1 ('NATURE STUDIES'): this sense is about artistic method and belongs to the domain of literary and art criticism. It refers specifically to the naturalist movement of the late 19th century, associated with writers such as Émile Zola.

常見錯誤

❌Darwin was a famous naturalist who wrote novels about human greed.
✅Darwin was a famous naturalist who studied finches and developed the theory of evolution.
💡Darwin was a naturalist in sense 1 (nature study), not a literary naturalist (sense 2).