regionalism

American  

[ree-juh-nl-iz-uhm] / ˈri dʒə nlˌɪz əm /

noun

1. Government. the principle or system of dividing a city, state, etc., into separate administrative regions.

2. advocacy of such a principle or system.

3. a speech form, expression, custom, or other feature peculiar to or characteristic of a particular area.

4. devotion to the interests of one's own region.

5. Literature. the theory or practice of emphasizing the regional characteristics of locale or setting, as by stressing local speech.

6. (often initial capital letter) a style of American painting developed chiefly 1930–40 in which subject matter was derived principally from rural areas.

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regionalism British  

/ ˈriːdʒənəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. division of a country into administrative regions having partial autonomy

2. advocacy of such division

3. loyalty to one's home region; regional patriotism

4. the common interests of national groups, people, etc, living in the same part of the world

5. a word, custom, accent, or other characteristic associated with a specific region

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Other Word Forms

• regionalist
  noun
• regionalistic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of regionalism

First recorded in 1880–85; regional + -ism

Explanation

Regionalism is a political focus on one specific area of a country. In the U.S., the perceived difference between Southerners and New Englanders is one example of regionalism. The term regionalism has many different meanings, depending whether you're talking about economics, international relations, local politics, or even language. It always has something to do with a relatively small (or homogeneous) geographical area, or region. Calling Coca-Cola "pop" or "soda" is a linguistic regionalism, language specific to a place. And focusing on the world's "Western" countries is also a kind of regionalism. Being loyal to just one region and its interests is yet another type of regionalism.

Example Sentences

Ms. Allen concedes their regionalism but argues that they were wiser for understanding that a “provincial backwater offers as full a panoply of human folly, nobility, tragedy, and absurdity as any great metropolis.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

A melancholy tale of family dysfunction presented as a complicated crime thriller, it combines British regionalism with peak TV-style poker-faced comedy in a way that has made it a critical darling around the world.

From New York Times • Apr. 28, 2024

That nation's focus at the four-day meeting will be "strengthening regionalism" though that would be challenging with key nations not sending leaders, Regenvanu told Reuters, without elaborating on why Salwai will not attend.

From Reuters • Nov. 6, 2023

Football, for all its unabashed ties to virulent tribalism or staunch regionalism, makes those inherent differences fairly difficult to mend.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2023

It helped to break down global regionalism, created a more seamless global commercial network, and made it simple and almost free to move digitized labor—service jobs and knowledge work—to lower-cost countries.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

Related Words

• accent
• idiom
• jargon
• language
• lingo
• patois
• pronunciation
• slang
• terminology
• tongue
• vernacular
• vocabulary