modernism

[ mod-er-niz-uh m ]

/ ˈmɒd ərˌnɪz əm /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR modernism ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

modern character, tendencies, or values; adherence to or sympathy with what is modern.

a modern usage or characteristic.

(initial capital letter) Theology.

the movement in Roman Catholic thought that sought to interpret the teachings of the Church in the light of philosophic and scientific conceptions prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: condemned by Pope Pius X in 1907.
the liberal theological tendency in Protestantism in the 20th century.

(sometimes initial capital letter) a deliberate philosophical and practical estrangement or divergence from the past in the arts and literature occurring especially in the course of the 20th century and taking form in any of various innovative movements and styles.

Words related to modernism

modernization, deviation, contraption, departure, introduction, shift, alteration, variation, newness, addition, mutation, permutation, modification, vicissitude, wrinkle, notion

Words nearby modernism

modern pentathlon, modern persian, modern sequence dancing, modern synthesis, moderne, modernism, modernist, modernistic, modernity, modernize, modersohn-becker

Origin of modernism

First recorded in 1730–40; modern + -ism

OTHER WORDS FROM modernism

an·ti·mod·ern·ism, noun

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

Examples from the Web for modernism

If modernism was going to be acceptable, its leftist leanings had to be gotten rid of.
How Jews Created American Modernism|Andrew Romano|August 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
What every fan of modernism may not know is that all of these designers were Jewish.
How Jews Created American Modernism|Andrew Romano|August 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the early years, modernism had a kind of progressive, even socialist bent to it.
How Jews Created American Modernism|Andrew Romano|August 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the early years—the 1920s and 1930s—modernism was seen as “out there.”
How Jews Created American Modernism|Andrew Romano|August 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST

In America, modernism was stripped of its socialist leanings.
How Jews Created American Modernism|Andrew Romano|August 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The opposition to Modernism is not yet a part of the history of thought.
Edward Caldwell Moore|Edward Moore
It is this “Modernism” that “His Holiness” so much fears and is trying to arrest.
The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul|Jirah D. Buck
If any woman presumed to get free with him, modernism would be flung aside for primitive emotions.
Mountain|Clement Wood
He has joined with modernism most consistently, having arrived at this state of progression by the process of investigation.
Adventures in the Arts|Marsden Hartley
Neither then nor later had he the smallest sympathy with or interest in Modernism.
Hugh|Arthur Christopher Benson

British Dictionary definitions for modernism

modernism

/ (ˈmɒdəˌnɪzəm) /

noun

modern tendencies, characteristics, thoughts, etc, or the support of these

something typical of contemporary life or thought

a 20th-century divergence in the arts from previous traditions, esp in architectureSee International Style

(capital) RC Church the movement at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries that sought to adapt doctrine to the supposed requirements of modern thought

Derived forms of modernism

modernist, noun, adjectivemodernistic, adjectivemodernistically, adverb

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