aestheticism
Americannoun
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the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary.
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an exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters.
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a late Victorian movement in British and American art characterized by a dedicatedly eclectic search for beauty and by an interest in old English, Japanese, and classical art.
noun
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the doctrine that aesthetic principles are of supreme importance and that works of art should be judged accordingly
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sensitivity to beauty, esp in art, music, literature, etc
Etymology
Origin of aestheticism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some writers and artists who initially championed boundary-pushing aestheticism later found a spiritual home in the Catholic Church.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
The standoff between Blanche’s impractical aestheticism and Stanley’s ruthless pragmatism is the heart of this quintessentially American drama.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 4, 2024
The 20-something Wilde had earlier perfected the delivery of his pronouncements — the slow enunciation, the casual hand gesture — while lecturing on aestheticism and home decoration in America.
From Washington Post • Oct. 12, 2021
The centrepiece of this area of academia and aestheticism was a giant hall, the manifestation of Prince Albert's idea of a hub where people could gather and share ideas.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2021
The gilded god of materialism is lavishing its blessings in the realm of science and invention and commercial enterprise, at the expense of aestheticism, till to-day there are thousands of artisans to every artist.
From A Fleece of Gold; Five Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece by Given, Charles Stewart
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
