nonconformity

[non-kuhn-fawr-mi-tee]

noun

1. failure or refusal to conform, as with established customs, attitudes, or ideas.

2. lack of conformity or agreement.

3. (often initial capital letter),  refusal to conform to the Church of England.

4. Geology.,  an unconformity that separates crystalline rocks, either igneous or metamorphic, from sedimentary rocks.

nonconformity

/ ˌnɒnkənˈfɔːmɪtɪ /

noun

1. failure or refusal to conform

2. absence of agreement or harmony

Word History and Origins

Origin of nonconformity¹

First recorded in 1610–20; non- + conformity

Example Sentences

Cultural pessimism and an obsession with culture in general: This relates to fascism’s false nostalgia and its discomfort with the pluralism and nonconformity of liberal society.

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He was only a few months into his job as a custody deputy at the downtown jail in 2009 when he learned the price of nonconformity.

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The filmmakers were aiming to call out the guardians of rigidity who see nonconformity as arrogance, regardless of whether it is or not.

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But she stood apart in her adamant nonconformity.

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For the target, as “Fellow Travelers” intuits, isn’t queerness, or racial equality, or anti-capitalism per se, but nonconformity of any sort, which power seeks to stamp out for its own preservation.

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