One who believes in realism; esp., one who maintains that generals, or the terms used to denote the genera and species of things, represent real existences, and are not mere names, as maintained by the nominalists. [1913 Webster]
An artist or writer who aims at realism in his work. See Realism, 2. [1913 Webster]
a person who avoids unrealistic or impractical beliefs or efforts. Contrasted to idealist or visionary. [PJC]

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THESAURUS

realist

Cyrenaic, Eleatic, Epicurean, Marxian, Marxist, Megarian, Stoic, animist, animistic, atomistic, commonsense, commonsense philosopher, cosmotheistic, dialectical materialist, down-to-earth, earthy, eclectic, empirical, epistemological realist, eudaemonistic, existential, hardheaded, hedonic, hedonist, hedonistic, humanist, humanistic, hylomorphous, hylotheistic, idealistic, instrumentalist, materialist, materialistic, matter-of-fact, mechanist, mechanistic, metaphysical, monistic, natural realist, naturalist, naturalistic, nominalist, panlogistical, pantheistic, physicist, positivist, positivistic, practical, practical person, practical-minded, pragmatic, pragmatist, rational, rationalistic, realistic, reasonable, sane, scholastic, scientific, scientistic, secular, sensationalistic, sensible, sober-minded, sound, sound-thinking, straight-thinking, syncretistic, theistic, transcendentalist, transcendentalistic, unideal, unidealistic, unromantic, unsentimental, utilitarian, vitalistic, voluntarist, voluntaristic, worldly

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