purism

American  

[pyoor-iz-uhm] / ˈpjʊər ɪz əm /

noun

1. strict observance of or insistence on purity in language, style, etc.

2. an instance of this.

3. Fine Arts. Often Purism a style of art developed in France in the early 20th century, characterized by the use of simple geometric forms and images evocative of objects produced by machine.

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purism British  

/ ˈpjʊəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. insistence on traditional canons of correctness of form or purity of style or content, esp in language, art, or music

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Other Word Forms

• purist
  noun
• purist
  adjective
• puristic
  adjective
• puristically
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of purism

First recorded in 1795–1805; pure + -ism

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

purism

Frankel’s dispatches showcase the culinary world’s relative lack of purism about the dish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

“There’s no point of having some kind of a revolutionary purism that you should only preach to the choir. That would be completely pointless,” Malm said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2023

But I do employ a similar sense of purism about the general strategy.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2021

He added: "The EU needs a new playbook for dealing with neighbours, one that involves pragmatic solutions between friends, not the imposition of one side's rules on the other and legal purism."

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2021

This is an excellent example of unreflecting or half-reflecting purism.

From America To-day, Observations and Reflections by William Archer

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