philosopher

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: phi=los=o=pher

CIDE DICTIONARY

philosopher, n. [OE. philosophre, F. philosophe, L. philosophus, Gr. ; loving + wise. Cf. Philosophy.].

•  One who philosophizes; one versed in, or devoted to, philosophy.  [1913 Webster]

  "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him."  [1913 Webster]
•  One who reduces the principles of philosophy to practice in the conduct of life; one who lives according to the rules of practical wisdom; one who meets or regards all vicissitudes with calmness.  [1913 Webster]
•  An alchemist.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

Philosopher's stone, an imaginary stone which the alchemists formerly sought as instrument of converting the baser metals into gold.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

philosopher, n.
1 a person engaged or learned in philosophy or a branch of it.
2 a person who lives by philosophy.
3 a person who shows philosophic calmness in trying circumstances.

Idiom

philosophers' (or philosopher's) stone the supreme object of alchemy, a substance supposed to change other metals into gold or silver.

Etymology

ME f. AF philosofre var. of OF, philosophe f. L philosophus f. Gk philosophos (as PHILO-, sophos wise)

THESAURUS

philosopher

Abelard, Albertus Magnus, Albinus, Alexander, Anaxagoras, Anselm, Averroist, Bacon, Berkeleian, Berkeley, Boethius, Bonaventure, Boodin, Bosanquet, Bowne, Broad, Bruno, Cartesian, Chubb, Cicero, Comtist, Condillac, Condorcet, Confucius, Cousin, Croce, Cynic, Cyrenaic, Drake, Eleatic, Epicurean, Eretrian, Euhemerus, Fechner, Feigl, Ferdinand, Fichtean, Frege, Fullerton, Gentile, Gilson, Green, Haeckel, Hahn, Haldane, Harris, Hartmann, Hegel, Hegelian, Heidegger, Heideggerian, Heraclitean, Heraclitus, Herbart, Herbartian, Herder, Hobbes, Holt, Howison, Hume, Humist, Husserl, Husserlian, Hutcheson, John, Kantian, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaardian, La Mettrie, Langer, Leibniz, Leibnizian, Leucippus, Locke, Lotze, Lovejoy, Lucretius, Mach, Marx, Marxist, Mead, Megarian, Mencius, Mill, Moore, Moses, Neo-Hegelian, Neo-Pythagorean, Neoplatonist, Ockham, Ortega y Gasset, Paley, Parmenidean, Parmenides, Pascal, Peripatetic, Perry, Philo, Plato, Platonist, Plotinus, Porphyry, Pratt, Pritchard, Protagoras, Pyrrho, Pyrrhonist, Pythagoras, Pythagorean, Reid, Reynaud, Roger, Rogers, Ross, Rousseau, Royce, Russell, Samuel, Santayana, Sartre, Sartrian, Scheler, Schelling, Schiller, Schleiermacher, Schlick, Scholastic, Schopenhauer, Scotist, Sellars, Socrates, Socratist, Sophist, Spencerian, Spinozist, Stern, Stoic, Strong, Thales, Thomas Aquinas, Thomist, Whitehead, Wittgensteinian, academician, agnostic, animist, authority, bookman, casuist, classicist, clerk, colossus of knowledge, cosmologist, cosmotheist, deist, dialectical materialist, dialectician, doctor, dualist, eclectic, egoist, elder, elder statesman, empiricist, essentialist, existentialist, genius, giant of learning, great soul, guru, hedonist, humanist, hylomorphist, hylotheist, hylozoist, idealist, illuminate, immaterialist, individualist, intellect, intellectual, intuitionist, learned clerk, learned man, literary man, litterateur, logical empiricist, logicaster, logician, logistician, lover of learning, lover of wisdom, mahatma, man of intellect, man of learning, man of letters, man of wisdom, mandarin, master, mastermind, materialist, mechanist, mentalist, mentor, metaphysician, mine of information, monist, mystic, naturalist, nominalist, ontologist, oracle, organic mechanist, organicist, panpsychist, pantheist, philologist, philologue, philomath, philosophaster, philosophe, philosophizer, physicist, polyhistor, polymath, positivist, pragmatist, psychist, pundit, rabbi, ratiocinator, rationalist, rationalizer, realist, reasoner, rishi, sage, sapient, savant, scholar, scholastic, schoolman, secular humanist, seer, sensationalist, sensist, skeptic, sophist, speculator, starets, student, substantialist, syllogist, syllogizer, syncretist, theist, thinker, transcendentalist, utilitarian, vitalist, voluntarist, walking encyclopedia, wise man, wise old man, zetetic

ROGET THESAURUS

philosopher

Advice

N advice, counsel, adhortation, word to the wise, suggestion, submonition, recommendation, advocacy, advisement, exhortation, expostulation, admonition, guidance, instruction, charge, injunction, obtestation, Governor's message, President's message, King's message, Queen's speech, message, speech from the throne, adviser, prompter, counsel, counselor, monitor, mentor, Nestor, magnus Apollo, senator, teacher, guide, manual, chart, physician, doctor, leech, archiater, arbiter, reference, referment, consultation, conference, pourparler, recommendatory, hortative, dehortatory, admonitory, Int, go to!, give every man thine ear but few thy voice, I pray thee cease thy counsel, my guide, philosopher, and friend, 'twas good advice and meant, my son be good, verbum sat sapienti, a word to the wise is sufficient, vive memor leti, we, ask advice but we mean approbation.

Scholar

N scholar, connoisseur, savant, pundit, schoolman, professor, graduate, wrangler, academician, academist, master of arts, doctor, licentitate, gownsman, philosopher, master of math, scientist, clerk, sophist, sophister, linguist, glossolinguist, philologist, philologer, lexicographer, glossographer, grammarian, litterateur, literati, dilettanti, illuminati, cogniscenti, fellow, Hebraist, lexicologist, mullah, munshi, Sanskritish, sinologist, sinologue, Mezzofanti, admirable Crichton, Mecaenas, bookworm, helluo librorum, bibliophile, bibliomaniac, bluestocking, bas-bleu, bigwig, learned Theban, don, Artium Baccalaureus, Artium Magister, learned man, literary man, homo multarum literarum, man of learning, man of letters, man of education, man of genius, antiquarian, antiquary, archaeologist, sage, pedant, doctrinaire, pedagogue, Dr, Pangloss, pantologist, criminologist, schoolboy, learned, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, he was a scholar and a ripe and good one, the manifold linguist.