exceptionalism

[ik-sep-shuh-nl-iz-uh m]

noun

the condition of being exceptional; uniqueness.

the study of the unique and exceptional.

a theory that a nation, region, or political system is exceptional and does not conform to the norm.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for exceptionalism

Contemporary Examples of exceptionalism

The first is the shared history of the Americas, too often eclipsed by the story of U.S. “exceptionalism.”
Keep the Holiday, Lose Columbus
Carrie Gibson
October 13, 2014
Niebuhr “played by the rules” by affirming American exceptionalism, and writing about American innocence.
Noam Chomsky—Infuriating and Necessary
David Masciotra
September 28, 2014
The SBOE wants Texas students to learn about “American exceptionalism.”
In Texas Textbooks, Moses Is a Founding Father
Edward Countryman
September 22, 2014
But American exceptionalism has merely delayed secularization, not halted it.
Did the Southern Baptist ‘Conservative Resurgence’ Fail?
Molly Worthen
June 1, 2014
But the Mandela legacy has also given South Africa a distorted sense of exceptionalism.
Mandela: The Last Good Man
Mark Gevisser
December 5, 2013

British Dictionary definitions for exceptionalism

exceptionalism

noun

an attitude to other countries, cultures, etc based on the idea of being quite distinct from, and often superior to, them in vital ways

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012