How to Use existentialist in a Sentence
existentialist
noun-
To an existentialist, this should not come as a grand scoop or groundbreaking news.
—Anahid Nersessian, The New York Review of Books, 13 Jan. 2022
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Yes, it's named for the French existentialist philosopher.
—Polly Campbell, Cincinnati.com, 13 Aug. 2017
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Of getting lost in who people think you are!’ A prizefighter’s journey is an existentialist ideogram for life, and the real fight, the real fifteen rounds, occurs in the heart, at home.
—Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 22 May 2017
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Crewe deftly sets the stage for a climactic, existentialist choice.
—Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2023
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This is the film in which the existentialist romance is most explicitly linked to the historical moment.
—Lidija Haas, The New Republic, 2 Dec. 2020
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Clibanoff seems the romantic, hopeful one here; Emmons the existentialist.
—Edith Newhall, Philly.com, 4 May 2017
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In either worldview, existentialist or Christian, the instructions are the same.
—Matt Winesett, National Review, 4 Apr. 2020
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That makes Luster an existentialist novel, like The Stranger, and a relative to literary modernism.
—Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 11 Aug. 2020
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Barbara Stanwyck, a slinking powerhouse in the role), before instructing her in the work of existentialist Fredrich Nietzsche.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2021
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Most surprising of all is that an existentialist show that doles out philosophy weekly managed to succeed in primetime.
—Paula Bernstein, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2019
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The spirituality and egotistical heroism of it all is a staple of the genre, and very Wagner—yet the abstraction and performance lean so much more into the realm of modernist, existentialist art.
—Rosa Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 13 Mar. 2023
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Thåström is written as a harsh existentialist, political and speaks succinctly, while Cave is the opposite, a struggling Dionysian agnostic, and a romantic dreamer who swims in words.
—Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2022
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Steeped in absurdist ideas, the existentialist comedy presents the actress as Caterine Vauban, a sort of antagonist whose nihilistic views on life go against widespread optimism.
—Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2021
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Beauvoir modeled Pascal on the young Merleau-Ponty, the future existentialist philosopher.
—Benita Eisler, WSJ, 22 Oct. 2021
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But Bacon, a thoroughgoing existentialist, didn’t have a spiritual bone in his body.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 31 July 2019
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The works avoid direct protest and instead offer symbolic narratives that tell wide-ranging existentialist stories.
—Ray Mark Rinaldi, The Know, 4 Mar. 2017
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Once known for his distanced, adversarial, bleak and bloody narratives and existentialist murder balladeer persona, a kinder, more optimistic Cave has emerged after 2015’s tragedy.
—A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 29 Mar. 2022
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These difficult thoughts, most dramatically of death, have for Mr. Marino and his existentialists a galvanizing force.
—John Kaag, WSJ, 10 May 2018
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Although an extremely difficult commercial path lies ahead, this epic-length existentialist road movie should enjoy a strong festival run following its world premiere at Rotterdam.
—Richard Kuipers, Variety, 31 Jan. 2022
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The existentialist philosopher argued that the commandment offers a far more radical proposition, one that requires us to surrender our commitment to justice, fairness, and private property.
—Meghan O'Gieblyn, Wired, 7 Feb. 2022
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Without spoiling too much, Lain’s existentialist character arc and isolation echo much of Neo’s, a vibe accentuated by the show’s ’90s alt-rock soundtrack and trippy, almost psychedelic take on cyberpunk imagery.
—Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 23 Dec. 2021
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The English existentialist was, naturally enough, Irish.
—Dominic Green, WSJ, 26 Feb. 2021
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An exhibition in Boston features delightfully unsettling works with a sci-fi existentialist downer vibe.
—Peter Plagens, WSJ, 6 Apr. 2019
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Paris was producing existentialist literature, but London had Bacon, the artist of existentialist life, a reckless gambler and homosexual masochist.
—Dominic Green, WSJ, 15 June 2018
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An existentialist’s driving concern is human freedom and the responsibilities and anxieties that are inseparable from it.
—Edward Mendelson, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2016
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To an existentialist, this should not come as a grand scoop or groundbreaking news.
—Anahid Nersessian, The New York Review of Books, 13 Jan. 2022
-
Yes, it's named for the French existentialist philosopher.
—Polly Campbell, Cincinnati.com, 13 Aug. 2017
-
Of getting lost in who people think you are!’ A prizefighter’s journey is an existentialist ideogram for life, and the real fight, the real fifteen rounds, occurs in the heart, at home.
—Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 22 May 2017
-
Crewe deftly sets the stage for a climactic, existentialist choice.
—Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2023
-
This is the film in which the existentialist romance is most explicitly linked to the historical moment.
—Lidija Haas, The New Republic, 2 Dec. 2020
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'existentialist.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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