Ba·ath·ist also Ba’ath·ist (bä?ä-th?st)n. A member of a pan-Arab socialist political party active principally in Syria and Iraq.[After the Ba’ath Party, from Arabic ba’?, revival, from ba’ata, to send, evoke, awaken.]Ba?ath·ism n.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.