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

Etymology

Origin of purism

First recorded in 1795–1805; pure + -ism

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

purism

“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

An expanded version of the album included some radical electronic remixes of songs that had been hand-played, signaling that Porridge Radio had no interest in guitar-band purism.

From New York Times ● May 18, 2022

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

A metaphysical neutrality, on the other hand, although denying that reality as such is predestined to morality—and thus affording no possibility of an ethical absolutism—becomes the true ground for an ethical purism.

From The Approach to Philosophy by Perry, Ralph Barton