individualist
/ɪndɪˈvɪdjʊ(ə)lɪst
/noun
1A person who is independent and self-reliant: a rugged individualist driven to succeed...
- She's an individualist, not a nonconformist.
- She's in tune with trends, but she's a confident individualist when it comes to style.
- He had already gained a reputation as a fierce individualist who refused to work well with studios.
Synonyms
free spirit, individual, nonconformist, unorthodox person, unconventional person, original, eccentric, bohemian, maverick, rare bird, rarity;
lone wolf, outsider;
Latin rara avis
British informal one-off, loner
1.1A self-centred or egotistical person: selfish individualists thinking only of themselves...
- John was an almost insanely egotistical individualist.
- He believes that children who do not regularly eat with or talk to their parents can turn into anti-social, undisciplined individualists.
- These are the privileged individualists who have already snatched their slice of the American dream.
2An advocate of a social theory favouring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control: radical individualists, committed to quality of life...
- She was from first to last a radical individualist.
- Individualists and collectivists disagree over whether the Second Amendment grants individuals a right to firearm possession.
- Liberal individualists argue that the individual is morally prior to the community.
adjective
1Relating to or characterized by the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant: individualist attitudes...
- Our individualist culture tends to think almost exclusively of great advances in science or philosophy as the product of great lone geniuses.
- Perhaps the greatest attribute of our student body is the individualist attitude of so many students.
- My mother was in turns warm and distant, yielding in me both a confused sense of worth and an independent individualist streak.
2Relating to or denoting a social theory favouring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control: individualist capitalism...
- Socialists emphasized a social, as opposed to an individualist, approach to life, especially economic organization.
- He argued that his outlook was not individualist but collectivist.
- I grew up in a capitalist and individualist society.