noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Excessive regard to outward acts or appearances, especially in religion. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   The act of judging by outward appearance or acts. countable, uncountable
3. 3
   The belief that only things that can be observed by senses are real. countable, uncountable

Etymology

c. 1840 external + -ism

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