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.

---

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

---

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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Stanford’s self-proclaimed ecological purism doesn’t mean he believes we should do away with nonnative species altogether, though.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024

Meanwhile, it says domestic purism should be promoted to lessen consumer demand for international flights.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2021

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

From Washington Post ● Jul. 25, 2021

Most of these are rejected by the purism of the literary language, which, however, has been compelled to borrow the phraseology of modern civilization from the Russian, French and other European languages.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---