SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
philistine
noun
A person described disparagingly as dismissive of artistic or intellectual interests.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Dismissive of culture
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topThis is a disparaging judgment about cultural interests. Anti-intellectual concerns ideas more specifically; the capitalized historical name Philistine is a different sense.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See philistine in use
The critic called the fictional mayor a philistine for mocking every form of art.
A visitor called another visitor a philistine after hearing him dismiss all creative work as a pointless distraction from useful business.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license