philatelist

noun

phi·​lat·​e·​list fə-ˈla-tə-list 

: a specialist in philately : one who collects or studies stamps

Did you know?

The first postage stamps were made available on May 1, 1840, in England, and it didn't take long for the hobby of stamp collecting to arise. Within a year, a young London lady was letting it be known in a newspaper advertisement that she was "desirous of covering her dressing room with cancelled postage stamps". Philately has been alive and well ever since, though modern philatelists—including rock stars, English kings, and American presidents—are more likely to put the stamps they collect in special albums.

Examples of philatelist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Initially, trees struck Stewart as an odd thing to collect—trees being, for the most part, large and difficult to sell or tuck into a suitcase the way philatelists might their beloved stamps and brandophilestheir cigar bands. —Kathleen Yale, Scientific American, 25 June 2024

Even philatelists love a good dungeon crawl now and again. —Chris Morris, Fortune, 1 Dec. 2023

Commemorative stamps extend far beyond the world of the philatelist and are best understood as simply another form of merchandise for fans, sitting alongside T-shirts, mugs and keychains – all items to be hoarded by enthusiasts but never used because to use them is to deplete their value. —Eamonn Forde, Forbes, 6 May 2021

The 2022 judges were: Sean Murtha, artist; Richard Houk, philatelist; Marshall Johnson, conservation partner; Paul Schmidt, conservation partner; and Christopher Nicolai, waterfowl biologist and conservation partner. —Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 1 Oct. 2022

To a philatelist, though, the overall value is nothing remarkable. —Andrew Duehren, WSJ, 15 Sep. 2022

In London, philatelist Denis Vandervelde enlightens the authors to the centuries-old practice of disinfecting mail in times of widespread disease. —Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2021

Marcia was a beloved grandmother, aunt, lifelong friend, good neighbor, social worker, supporter of Israel, genealogist, philatelist, civic and global activist. —courant.com, 16 Nov. 2019

Now, just nine remain, extremely valuable to philatelists. —Ilaria Maria Sala, Quartz, 2 Sep. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1865, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

philatelist

noun

phi·​lat·​e·​list fə-ˈlat-ᵊl-əst 

: someone who collects or studies postage stamps