English

Adjective

reformist ‎(comparative more reformist, superlative most reformist)

1. Advocating reform of an institution or body.
   • 1913 Émile Faguet, Initiation into Literature translated by Sir Home Gordon

     [...] all the prose is German, all reformist, all moralising, and has little or practically no echo of antiquity.

2. Specifically, advocating reform and the gradual accumulation of small changes, as opposed to revolutionary action.

Antonyms

• (advocating small changes) revolutionary

Noun

reformist ‎(plural reformists)

1. One who advocates reform (of an institution).
2. Specifically, one who advocates reform of society and the gradual accumulation of small changes, as opposed to revolutionary action.
3. (dated, 17th C.) An advocate of reform in the Church of England; a Reformer.
4. (dated, 18th century) An advocate or supporter of political reform in the United Kingdom. (Common from ca 1790 to 1830.)
5. A member of a reformed religious denomination.

References

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editor (1884–1928) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697; and The Oxford English Dictionary; being a Corrected Re-issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (the First Supplement), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933, OCLC 2748467.
• Hélyot, Dictionnaire des Ordres Religieux, Paris, Migne, 1850

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:reformist. (entry for reformist in the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition)

Anagrams

• firestorm, fire storm