noun
pessimist
PES-ih-mist/ˈpesɪmɪst/
A person who tends to expect bad outcomes.
My brother is a pessimist who expects every plan to fail.
Etymology
The base means “worst”: pessimists make the worst possibilities central to their outlook. The word describes someone who habitually expects bad outcomes or emphasizes life's evils.
In context
I said I'm not a pessimist I can think of myself as an optimist with a reality chaser I know the glass is half full
More examples
- The team's pessimists predict another loss before the game begins.
- Even a pessimist can see reasons for hope here.
- As a pessimist, I always prepare for things to go wrong.
Forms
pessimist · pessimists
pessimism noun — The tendency to expect bad outcomes.
pessimistic adjective — Tending to expect unfavorable results or events.
Similar words
- defeatist
- Expects failure and gives up rather than continuing to try.
- doomsayer
- Predicts disaster openly, rather than simply expecting unfavorable outcomes.