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
So he becomes the eloquent apostle of meliorism, proclaiming his gospel without abatement.
From The Vitalized School by Pearson, Francis B.
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.
