meliorism
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of meliorism
1855–60; < Latin melior better + -ism
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.
When an intern tells a patient that he believes kindness is the best medicine, J.D. tersely interrupts his blue-sky meliorism with a cold splash of reality.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026
Nevertheless, I'd posit "Strange New Worlds" is giving Trekkies what they need in 2022, updating Roddenberry's meliorism with a bracing dose of realism, and serving it in a highly devourable form.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2022
He explained, “In the spirit of American meliorism, the criticism is to make things better, not necessarily because I didn’t like it.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
Aiming not at perfection but at improvement, accepting the vagaries of human nature as a premise that policy must accommodate, rather than wish away, meliorism forces a longer, more calibrated approach.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 26, 2016
Midway between the two there stands what may be called the doctrine of meliorism, tho it has hitherto figured less as a doctrine than as an attitude in human affairs.
From Pragmatism by James, William
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.
