An individualist is a person who lives and thinks their own way, instead of copying the group around them. They pick their own clothes, their own job, their own opinions — and they are not too worried if other people think those choices are strange. The word is a noun for a person. Note the feeling of it: in English it is usually warm or at least neutral. To call someone 'a real individualist' is close to saying 'this person is not afraid to be themselves', and English speakers, especially Americans, tend to hear that as a good thing. It is not the same as 'selfish', even though the two ideas sit near each other. There is a second, more serious use, mostly in politics and books: an individualist is someone who believes the single person matters more than the state or the group — that people should be free to choose and should look after themselves, with government staying small. In that use it is the opposite of a collectivist. In real speech, people stretch the word. A teenager who dyes their hair green gets called an individualist; so does a business owner who thinks the government should not help anyone. Those two are quite far apart, so the word tells you less than it sounds like it does. You often hear it with 'rugged' — 'a rugged individualist' — which is an old American phrase for a tough person who does everything alone and asks nobody for help. Some people say it with admiration, some with a small roll of the eyes.