MEANING
1. Explaining features or structures by the roles they perform within a larger system.
2. Emphasizing an object’s or building’s practical use rather than its decorative appearance.
Use it for
analyzing institutions through the roles they perform; identifying an explanation based on a contribution to a system; questioning whether usefulness explains how a feature originatedSeparates explaining something by its role from judging design primarily by practical use. Academic functions: Theory / Conceptual Language.
Words that belong together
- a functionalist explanation
- a functionalist account
- functionalist analysis
On the page
A functionalist explanation relates the ritual to its contribution to group cohesion.
Showing that an institution serves a function does not by itself explain its historical origin.
The building’s functionalist design places circulation and access ahead of ornament.
The review asks whether the functionalist plan adequately accommodates social interaction.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- functionalist
Usage notes
Adjective and countable noun: a functionalist, plural functionalists. Normally non-gradable as an approach label. Register: technical. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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