Conservatism

//kənˈsɜːvətɪzəm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A political philosophy that advocates traditional values. countable, uncountable

    "Oddly, with the liberals and radicals in power in NSW, the conservatives realized that a nominated upper house was no longer a bastion of conservatism and some began to call for an elected legislative council."

  2. 2
    a political or theological orientation advocating the preservation of the best in society and opposing radical changes wordnet
  3. 3
    A risk-averse attitude or approach. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
conservativismabnegationabstinencebackwardnesscalmcalmness

Example

More examples

"In the battle of ideas, science defeated conservatism."

Etymology

Either irregularly from conservative + -ism or from conservate + -ism; ultimately from Latin cōnservāre (“to conserve; to keep, guard, observe”).

Related phrases

compassionate conservatismfiscal conservatismliberal conservatismnational conservatismone-nation conservatismsocial conservatism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.