modernists

IPA/mˈɒdənˌɪsts/
KK[mˈɑdɚnɪsts]IPA/mˈɑːdərnɪsts/

modernists — noun

1. artists, writers, designers, or architects who wanted new forms and deliberately

1.nounC2
Definition

artists, writers, designers, or architects who wanted new forms and deliberately moved away from older styles.

Example

At the 1928 show, the modernists painted smoke, steel, and crowded streets.

the modernists + plural verb

Many modernists in Paris wanted clean rooms, flat roofs, and simple chairs.

modernists in + place

Common collocations
  • the modernists
  • early modernists
  • European modernists
  • modernists in Paris
  • among the modernists
Synonyms
Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

the modernists + plural verb

modernists in + field/place

among the modernists

Usage Note

Usually refers to people connected with art, design, literature, or architecture rather than to modern people in general. Distinguish it from 'modernism', which names the movement or style itself.

Common Mistakes

The museum studies modernists as a style.
The museum studies modernism as a style.
'modernists' names people, while 'modernism' names the style or movement.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Modernists' usually points to artists, writers, or designers linked to the modernist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 'Avant-garde artists' also suggests bold new work, but it stresses being ahead of current taste and can describe many later movements too. 'Experimental artists' focuses on trying unfamiliar methods, even outside modernism. 'Innovators' is broader still and can describe business, science, or technology as well as art. 'Traditionalists' moves in the opposite direction: they protect older forms instead of breaking from them. You can call Picasso and Woolf modernists in a historical sense, but a present-day game designer is more naturally called an innovator or an experimental artist unless the discussion is specifically about modernist style.

modernists ↗avant-garde artistsexperimental artistsinnovators ↗traditionalists ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • the modernists
  • early modernists
  • European modernists
  • modernists in Paris

Prepositions

  • among the modernists

Etymology

Late LatinFrenchEnglish

'Modernists' is the plural of 'modernist'. The base word grew from 'modern', which comes through French from late Latin 'modernus', meaning 'of the present time'. English then added the suffix '-ist' for a person who follows an idea, style, or movement. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 'modernist' was being used for writers, artists, and designers who wanted to leave older forms behind.