Defaultism

//dɪˈfɒl.tɪ.zəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An approach or situation in which something occurs by default, without being explicitly introduced. uncountable

    "US defaultism"

  2. 2
    The often misguided belief that the circumstances surrounding an individual are the default for everyone else. uncountable

Example

More examples

"But, in being an African-American politician, [Obama] […] introduces race by default. This racial defaultism is what must be considered as far as a potential limitation in the president's bargaining power, despite whites' liberalization about race and race-related policy issues."

Etymology

From default + -ism.

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