as in materialist
a person who is chiefly interested in material comfort and is hostile or indifferent to art and culture
the town's philistines who think that spending on the arts is a waste of taxpayers' money
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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as in utilitarian
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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as in materialistic
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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as in uncultured
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of philistine
Barrymore Laurence Scherer, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2022
There was no reason — other than bankrupt ideology and blinkered philistine pig-ignorance — not to go hog-wild with stimulus, say, $2 trillion for starters.
—Ryan Cooper, The Week, 10 Jan. 2022
Adjective
In pre-Revolutionary Russia some critics derided his compositions as bourgeois work aimed at philistine audiences.
—Barrymore Laurence Scherer, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2022
There was no reason — other than bankrupt ideology and blinkered philistine pig-ignorance — not to go hog-wild with stimulus, say, $2 trillion for starters.
—Ryan Cooper, The Week, 10 Jan. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for philistine
Adjective
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In such utilitarian areas, those with short, dense fibers are more durable than ones containing longer, looser fibers.Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 5 Nov. 2024
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The concrete seawall could only have been a few decades old, and the municipal buildings had a familiar utilitarian air.Greg Jackson, The New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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On a date, people are dressed up and act a certain way; maybe being a bit materialistic.Arielle Domb, Vogue, 1 Nov. 2024
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Another is with their adoptive family, which is made up of an uptight aunt, a materialistic uncle, and seven snide cousins.Mia Taylor, Parents, 4 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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For their part, the Russians considered the Mizrahim—indeed, most Israelis—loud, uncultured boors.Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2024
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Inserting two distinct forms of the gene into clusters of uncultured cells, the team discovered that the form of NOVA1 found in H. neanderthalensis created bumpier blobs of brain tissue when cultured, while the form of NOVA1 found in H. sapiens created smooth, spherical clumps.Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 1 Mar. 2023
Adjective
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However, after the initial excitement fades, the pragmatic, boring gift gets the most use.Allie Volpe, Vox, 19 Nov. 2024
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Trump can help shape the direction of those institutions as a leading shareholder, for example, by building a relationship with Ajay Banga, the pragmatic businessman leading the World Bank.Leslie Vinjamuri, Foreign Affairs, 15 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Stalin’s apprenticeship in high-stakes diplomacy had shown him to be cunning but also opportunistic, avaricious, obdurate.Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs, 19 Sep. 2017
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Few places in the U.S. are more fraught with unresolved tension than South Dakota’s Black Hills, land stolen from the Sioux after treaties had been signed in order for avaricious Americans to pursue gold.Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 7 July 2024
Adjective
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What Should the New Name Be? Clearly, the goal was a name that felt neither too highbrow nor too lowbrow, as restaurants have been trending toward an unstuffy seriousness for decades.Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 10 July 2024
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Tobe Hooper’s 1974 slasher masterpiece embraced its lowbrow status with its matter-of-fact title and unapologetic gore, likely seen by many as a cheap attempt to ride shock value into a quick box office gold mine.Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 21 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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But the dealer’s acquisitive focus often operated as a Midas touch, turning those around him into golden objects.Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
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The aggregator continues to be acquisitive of other Shopify brands in categories such as health, apparel and consumer electronics, Rabois says.Richard Collings, Axios, 18 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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All that’s there is an artless effort to provoke outrage — Tony Hinchcliffe with the world’s strongest Boston accent.Joe Berkowitz, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2024
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The effort of analyzing this video, a piece of artless misinformation, was beneath Abu Hamdan, who has dedicated himself to unveiling the violence of the world through the medium of sound.Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near philistine
Cite this Entry
“Philistine.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/philistine. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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