Alienism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The fact or position of being an alien; alienage. uncountable, usually
- 2 The study or treatment of mental disorders; psychiatry. archaic, uncountable
"2016 Dr. Seward, Penny Dreadful s3e1, 32min Since I'm sure you're not familiar with alienism I'll tell you how it works."
- 3 the quality of being alien wordnet
- 4 A foreignism, a word (or trait, etc) from another language (or country, etc). uncountable, usually
"The diction of the dialogue is essentially the same as that of the chorus, the slight difference being due to a little greater restriction in the use of alienisms in the former on account of the use of the iambic metre."
- 5 an obsolete term for the study and treatment of mental illness wordnet
Example
More examples"The diction of the dialogue is essentially the same as that of the chorus, the slight difference being due to a little greater restriction in the use of alienisms in the former on account of the use of the iambic metre."
Etymology
From alien + -ism.
From French aliénisme, from aliéné in the meaning of "insane".
More for "alienism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.