[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

realist \re"alist\, n. cf. f. r'ealiste.
   1. philos. one who believes in realism; esp., one who
      maintains that generals, or the terms used to denote the
      genera and species of things, represent real existences,
      and are not mere names, as maintained by the nominalists.
      1913 webster

   2. art.  lit. an artist or writer who aims at realism in
      his work. see realism, 2.
      1913 webster

   3. a person who avoids unrealistic or impractical beliefs or
      efforts. contrasted to idealist or visionary.
      pjc
see also:
realism idealist visionary 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

realist
     n 1: a philosopher who believes that universals are real and
          exist independently of anyone thinking of them
     2: a person who accepts the world as it literally is and deals
        with it accordingly
     3: a painter who represents the world realistically and not in
        an idealized or romantic style

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

80 moby thesaurus words for "realist":
   cyrenaic, eleatic, epicurean, marxian, marxist, megarian, stoic,
   animist, animistic, atomistic, commonsense,
   commonsense philosopher, cosmotheistic, dialectical materialist,
   down-to-earth, earthy, eclectic, empirical,
   epistemological realist, eudaemonistic, existential, hardheaded,
   hedonic, hedonist, hedonistic, humanist, humanistic, hylomorphous,
   hylotheistic, idealistic, instrumentalist, materialist,
   materialistic, matter-of-fact, mechanist, mechanistic,
   metaphysical, monistic, natural realist, naturalist, naturalistic,
   nominalist, panlogistical, pantheistic, physicist, positivist,
   positivistic, practical, practical person, practical-minded,
   pragmatic, pragmatist, rational, rationalistic, realistic,
   reasonable, sane, scholastic, scientific, scientistic, secular,
   sensationalistic, sensible, sober-minded, sound, sound-thinking,
   straight-thinking, syncretistic, theistic, transcendentalist,
   transcendentalistic, unideal, unidealistic, unromantic,
   unsentimental, utilitarian, vitalistic, voluntarist, voluntaristic,
   worldly

Realist >> R Words
Realist, definition of term: Realist
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