Zionism

American  

[zahy-uh-niz-uhm] / ˈzaɪ əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. a worldwide Jewish movement that resulted in the establishment and development of the state of Israel and that now supports the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland.

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Zionism British  

/ ˈzaɪəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel

2. a policy or movement for Jews to return to Palestine from the Diaspora

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Zionism Cultural  

1. The belief that Jews (see also Jews) should have their own nation; Jewish nationalism. Zionism gained much support among Jews and others in the early twentieth century, and the hoped-for nation was established in the late 1940s in Palestine, as the state of Israel. Zionism is opposed by most Arabs. (See Arab-Israeli conflict.)

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Other Word Forms

• Zionist noun
• Zionistic adjective
• Zionite noun
• anti-Zionism noun
• anti-Zionist noun
• non-Zionist noun
• pro-Zionism noun
• pro-Zionist noun

Etymology

Origin of Zionism

First recorded in 1895–1900; Zion + -ism

Example Sentences

“Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know,” she said Monday.

From The Wall Street Journal

Zionism is, in essence, a communitarian nationalism: the assertion of a people’s right to self-determination in its ancestral homeland.

From The Wall Street Journal

Ideologies also flourished, including socialism, communism, Zionism and, among a growing number of non-Jewish townspeople, Nazism.

From The Wall Street Journal

But “Effingers” also rejects Zionism as the inevitable path for European Jews.

From The Wall Street Journal

In Israel’s early days, Ben-Gurion’s Mapai, the bastion of Labor Zionism, “was a party with its own state,” Mr. Segal observes.

From The Wall Street Journal